


the last light of day

by witchless



Series: with even the darkest night comes a new dawn [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, aang dies in the storm, her name is kei and she has to deal with a lot of shit, it's not bad but def not teen, it's rated M for violence, not beta read we die like men, the avatar is reborn in the swamp tribes, there is no smut in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:01:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 40,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23708047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchless/pseuds/witchless
Summary: Aang recieves a vision of the future during the storm in which he freezes himself and is presented with a choice: Envoke the Avatar State and remain frozen for one hundred years or drown and reincarnate so the next Avatar can save what remains of his people post-genocide. The choice is not easy. Twelve years later, the benders of the Foggy Swamp Tribe hold a secret that will change the course of the Fire Lord's war—the Avatar was not reborn into the polar water tribes; the Avatar is a little girl who bends the water in the vines and carries a sea serpent on her shoulders like he's nothing more than a screeching bird.
Series: with even the darkest night comes a new dawn [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1707466
Comments: 16
Kudos: 41





	1. prologue (i)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: major character death — aka aang and appa  
> also references of death via airbending asphyxiation

**PROLOGUE (i)**

**I.**

Aang leaves the Southern Air Temple filled with anger and guilt. Angry because Gyatso would _let them take him from his home_ and guilty because anger is not something airbenders are ever supposed to indulge. 

Appa’s fur grounds him. It’s soft and coarse beneath his crossed legs and a comforting source of heat as he flies closer to the South Pole. 

He’s too consumed with his thoughts to notice the storm approaching. Too consumed by possibilities and responsibilities. He’s just mastered airbending. Monk Gyatso held his hand as they tattooed his skin blue and wiped the stray tear he’d shed when they reached his forehead and the pain grew unbearable. Now they expect him to master three more elements. What kind of pain would that bring? How would he manage it without his friend to help him?

Aang doesn’t expect he’ll be a good Avatar. What kind of Avatar runs away from home? Anger twists through him like creeping crystal and he dances around the edge of it as he entertains where he’ll go so that the monks never find him. 

He’s close to the Southern Water Tribe. He could hide there and find a master to teach him how to waterbend. He’d always wanted to go penguin sledding and the South Pole was full of otter penguins. Or he could fly all the way to the Northern Water Tribe and see the dancing aurora lights in the sky and eat seaweed noodles until he puked. 

_With a giant blue arrow on your head?_

Even if he replaced his orange robes with a traditional parka and snow boots, his arrow would betray him immediately. Not even his hair would cover it completely if he grew it out. And no one with airbending tattoos and a flying bison could learn waterbending without being the Avatar. Word would travel and the monks would drag him to some hidden corner of the world and stomp out everything that made him Aang and fill him with other Avatars.

Yangchen’s resilience. Kyoshi’s strength. Roku’s compassion. Definitely not Kuruk’s recklessness but maybe his charisma or loyalty. They were all accomplished Avatars, but he doesn’t _want_ to be Yangchen or Kuruk. He wants to be Aang. He wants to choose his own path and make his own choices. The monks want to take that—and Gyatso—from him.

The rain pulls him from his mind. Appa moans below him when a streak of lightning splits the sky too close for comfort. 

“Hang on, boy,” he whispers and the anger in his heart is replaced with fear. He’s never seen a storm so fierce. 

It’s too late to turn around so Aang guides Appa as best he can through the growing winds. He tries to shift the storm away from them with heavy swats from his glider and swirling movements of his arms but the storm is as stubborn as a badgermole and ten times as strong. 

Another clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning nearly strikes Appa in the side. His friend groans and dips to avoid the blow. Only they’re much lower than Aang thought and the waves are much higher than they should be. 

Water covers his head. It’s a shock and not even his airbending can keep him warm. The water burns his eyes and it seeps through his skin into his bones. 

He’s floating. Only the tips of his toes can feel Appa but he seems so distant. 

Airbending doesn’t help him much underwater. The current is too strong and he’s too slow to make much of a difference. 

Aang had never been able to really bend anything besides air. The monks had used toys to determine he was the Avatar, not a test of the elements, but he should be able to bend water now, when his life depends on it. 

He draws knowledge from a scroll he read in the air temple library. It’d been a southern bending style scroll and he twists in an attempt to maneuver himself in a spout that would push him above the waves. He shoots upward, his ascent jerky, and his head pokes above the surface.

Air rushes his lungs and he gasps, floundering, before he sucks in another breath and a wave shoves him back down. 

There’s no way he can bend his way out of this. Not by himself. Not at twelve years old. 

_Not unless—_

A white glow bleeds into the edges of his vision. It chases away the cold in his veins and suddenly Appa is beneath him, sturdy and strong. 

He places his fists together and crosses his legs. An air bubble grows around him, expanding. 

The glow has nearly overtaken all of his vision when he feels a grip on his shoulder. 

_“Come.”_

Aang opens his eyes with a sharp inhale. The scent of salt and rain is gone, replaced with the tangy, salty smell that oddly reminds him of the way the baby bison smelled when they picked their lifelong friend. He’s surrounded by barren trees and a gray sky. His feet sink into dark mud. 

“Aang.”

The young boy turns. Behind him, a man in deep red Fire Nation robes looks down at him. His hair is snow white and his eyes are a deep amber. Aang has never seen this man in his life, but he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt who it is.

Placing one fist on a flat palm, Aang bows. 

“Avatar Roku.” 

The older avatar bows in return. For a moment, Aang forgets that he was drowning in the South Sea seconds ago. 

“Where am I?”

“You are in the Spirit World. I brought you here so that we might speak.” 

Aang nods but he doesn’t quite understand. What is so important Roku would pull him from the Avatar State into the Spirit World?

“I don’t have much time to explain. Your body is still in danger in the physical world but you need to know the effects your decision will have. The Avatar State is a defensive mechanism designed to endow you with the strength and knowledge of all your past lives.” Roku pauses. “When an Avatar is untrained, the Avatar State can be brought on when the Avatar is distraught or in danger.”

“Yes, Avatar Roku. I was—I was using the Avatar State in the physical world. I was drowning. I couldn’t bend my way out by myself.”

Roku nods slowly. “If you allow the Avatar State to overcome you, you will freeze yourself in the water.”

Aang frowns. “Oh. How will I get out?”

“Someone will have to discover you.”

“How long will that take?” he asks slowly. 

“It’ll be best if I show you.”

Roku steps forward. He raises his hand, places his thumb on the boy’s forehead, and Aang _sees_. 

It’ll take one hundred years before he’s found. A girl—her eyes are blue, bluer than any sky or ocean he’s ever seen, and they make his heart ache fiercely—and her brother find him. They tell him of a Fire Nation invasion. The slaughter of his people. He learns that he ran away just hours the genocide. If he freezes in the iceberg, he will be oblivious as Gyatso is forced to use his bending violently. As the boys he was raised with are cut down like trees. He sees a blind girl who listens and waits. She’s his earthbending teacher. _The greatest earthbender in the world!_ A boy with a scarred face who teaches him firebending and learns from the original masters with him. He sees the lion turtle, Sozin’s comet, and he sees a marriage and three children and a magnificent city.

Aang steps away from Roku’s hand. The vision fades. He clings to the shade of the girl’s eyes, but it slips like sand through his fingers. He finds himself missing something he’s never seen, someone he’s never met, someone who isn’t even born. 

The young airbender’s head dips. “I understand,” he says. “If I use the Avatar State, I won’t be able to help my people and the world will be unbalanced for the next one hundred years. But…”

“If you deny it, your soul will fade and the next Avatar will be born.”

Aang’s throat feels tight. _It’s not fair,_ he thinks. _I want to do things. I want to meet the girl with blue eyes. I want to see Gyatso again._

His hands flex at his sides. Above all else, he wants to go home. 

Then he realizes that home—with the airy hallways filled with the scent of just-baked fruit pies and chirping lemurs—is burning now. His people are fighting for their lives. Most will die. Some will live. Those who do will run and hide and live what’s left of their lives in the darkest corners of the world, terrified that one day the Fire Lord will return and finish what he’d started. 

And he is choosing whether his single life is worth the price it will cost to save it. 

He knows his answer, even as Roku begins to speak again. 

“If you use the Avatar State, you will have the strength of all the Avatars that came before you. But you also have our knowledge. As the Avatar, you needed to understand the implications of this choice. It is yours and yours alone, but we will stand with you no matter the choice.” Roku’s voice is soft and wise and Aang wishes he could wrap himself in it and stay here, alive, in the Spirit World forever. 

“I understand, Avatar Roku.”

Aang raises his head. His eyes burn. Roku looks at him with eyes so sad that it threatens to swallow Aang whole. Is Roku sad because Aang is? Where do the other Avatars end and he begins?

It doesn’t matter. 

“Can you take me back?”

“Of course.” Roku raises his hand again. Before it touches the boy’s shoulder, he stops. “We will be with you until the end.”

The water and the ice flood back. His body stays warm. 

Aang pushes the light away and curls his fingers in Appa’s wet fur. His bison has gone still beneath him. 

His chest burns and aches. He’s an airbender trapped in an endless ocean, surrounded by more water than he could possibly fathom. 

_I don’t want to go,_ he thinks. 

He can feel hands all around him, hundreds of Avatars arriving to guide him to the Spirit World. 

In the end, he is not alone. 

**II.**

The statues in the temples flare, filled with a burst of light. Firebenders across the world pause to watch the display, to watch the light spill from the towers that’s brighter than any flame they could create with the comet’s power. 

They stop. Their generals told them what would happen when the Avatar died. Some feel joy. Others feel darkness swallow their heart. 

Monk Gyatso’s hands fall from their defensive pose when he sees the tower light up. His blood runs cold. He’d had hope that Aang had made it to safety, that he’d be able to stop Sozin—

He’d hoped too much. A soldier charges him with a stream of fire. There’s so much that Gyatso is sure the entire world is burning. 

He has nothing left to lose.

Gyatso inhales through his nose, closes his eyes, pushes out and seeks out the air in their bodies.

If he is to die and his Avatar—his _son—_ must die, then so would they. 

Twenty firebenders to press forward. Even he is not strong enough to defeat them all. 

His only hope now is that he and Aang are reunited in the Spirit World.

**III.**

Somewhere in the Foggy Swamp, a baby cries.

A mother coos at her newborn. She looks to her husband, whose eyes are wide with wonder as he looks at his daughter. She’s their firstborn and the most magical thing he’s ever seen. 

“She’s beautiful,” he says. His voice catches on the last syllable. 

The mother nods in agreement and tucks her pointer finger under her baby’s chin. Big green eyes stare up her. 

“Welcome home, Kei.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i literally haven't written fanfiction since i was thirteen, fourteen? but, i rewatched atlas and watched lok for the first time this last year and, man, let me just tell you how hard those shows hit. i am a huge korra fan. (i know, i know, it has it's flaws writing-wise, but i really just love korra.) i also love learning about new or different avatars. and I got to thinking, what if aang had died in the storm? and how different would their fantastic world be? also, swampbenders. i love them. so that's the origin story on this fic.
> 
> ———
> 
> NEXT — prologue (ii)


	2. prologue (ii)

**PROLOGUE (ii)**

**I.**

Fire Lord Sozin knows that the Avatar, whoever they may have been, is dead. He knows because every single one of his generals writes him an account of the way the Avatar statues in each of the four temples flared to life—bright and beautiful and angry, filled with more life than any of them could imagine—before they blinked out. In their reports, his generals say that it was the statues going dark that truly allowed them to defeat the Nomads, not the comet. Sozin believes them, if only because the reports also include a record of the dead and injured. Far more than he would’ve liked but still far better than it could have been.

(Greatness comes with a price, after all.)

The immortal part of the child’s soul has moved on, ever changing, always following that damned cycle. Now, they live among the waterbenders in an icy hellscape where the days and nights are preternaturally long.

Sozin is a patient man. He spent years building his army in preparation for the comet. Though he wants nothing more than to immediately launch a campaign against the Water Tribes, he won’t. For the time being, he’s achieved what he wanted. He has no problem waiting for his men to recovery before they begin the search again.

(Two more children to murder. Two more children before that all-powerful spirit is _his_ and he can melt it and mold it to his needs. Or, if his time has passed, his son’s needs.)

His men are given time off. Not a single solider argues. They slink off to skeevy taverns and whorehouses, drinking and fucking until they no longer taste the blood and ash in their mouths. Some make the long journey home to see families they haven’t seen in months; they hug their children, try to forget what it was like when their commanders sent them to the nursery to finish of the infants. The only units that remain in the fields are to kill any remaining airbenders who might yet still live. It’s an easy enough job. Most are injured or have no idea how to survive in this new world as a fugitive. 

While his armies recover, he watches, waits, _plans_. On the main continent, the Earth King has grown lax in the protection it provides its coastal lands. Conquering those states would provide them with the coal and resources he needs to ship his armies to the Water Tribes. (And while he’s at it, why not start up his own colonies? He’s doing the savages a favor.)

The Southern Water Tribe is weaker than its sister tribe, smaller and less guarded, but still not to be underestimated. First, he decides, they’ll use their colonies in the Earth Kingdom to cut off trade. Then, they’ll attack in the summer when the days are long and the moon is tucked out of reach. 

Sozin prepares for war in the Poles, prepares for an Avatar who bends ice and snow 

He does not know of the little girl in the swamp. 

**II.**

“Noubou! Oh, spirits, Noubou look! She’s walking!”

A baby girl teeters on chubby, unbalanced feet. Her arms are outstretched, her mouth split in a gappy, toothless grin. The girl squeals in delight as she stumbles toward her mother.

There’s a crash outside their hut and suddenly the girl’s father is barrelling in the front entrance. His cheeks are flushed and a curl of black hair slips onto his forehead as his eyes seek out his daughter and the sound of her raucous laughter.

His face lights up and he grins as Kei falls into her mother’s arms. “Oh, look at you,” he father coos. “She’s something else, ain’t she?” 

The mother smiles. Her darling little girl with her father’s curls and her mother’s eyes. “She certainly is.”

**III.**

When she’s old enough to begin stringing words together, her mother and father often find Kei sitting in the corner of their hut, babbling to herself.

She squeals with happiness, her hands reaching for something… _not there_.

“What d’you think she’s doing?” her father murmurs as he lays beside his wife, Yu. His arm is slung over her waist as his thumb rubs slow circles into her hip. “Who d’you think she’s talkin’ to?”

Yu turns on her side. “Don’t all babies have imaginary friends?”

Noubou hums but looks back to his daughter who’s giggling as she traces something in the air with those short, stubby fingers of hers. He smiles. 

“I suppose they do. But she’s my little girl.” He buries his nose in the crook of Yu’s neck and breathes in that scent of sunshine and sandalwood. Yu can feel his mouth smirking against her skin. “Can’t blame me for worrying.”

Yu chuckles, green eyes twinkling. If this is all she ever gets in life, then she’ll die with no complaints. “I know. And I love you all the more for it.”

**IV.**

Kei begins bending when she’s three—young for a member of their tribe, about average for a budding Avatar. She’s young enough that she’s never given much thought to how it is that her people use magic to make water move.

And so the first time she bends, she runs to her mama, sobbing and terrified and unsure of what she’s done.

“Kei, what is it, sweet girl?”

“Mama,” she hiccups, “I did something _bad._ ”

“What is it?” she asks, smoothing out a wrinkle on Kei’s forehead with her fingers.

“I—I sneezed, Mama, and I shot up ten feet in the air!”

Her mother cocks her head.

“And then,” her daughter wails. Her mother kisses her forehead, brushes wild hair out of her eyes, and listens with concern. “Then I got stuck in the vines and they kept chasin’ me and they wouldn’t let me go until I told them to.”

 _Waterbending_ , she thinks and then slowly comes to the next realization. _And airbending._

Suddenly, she’s far, far away. All she can think of is the news her husband received a few months ago—of Sozin’s first attack on the Southern Water Tribe. It’d been a preemptive strike, more of a poke than a true attack. _Because that’s where the next Avatar was supposed to be born._

“Sweetie, do you think you can show me what you did?”

Kei nods with a wobbly chin. She frowns, her lips pursed. She lifts up her hand and a soft, little wind flows through her hair. Then the ground beneath their feet rumbles and the water in the puddles next to them lifts like baby birds propelling themselves into flight for the first time.

 _Avatar_. The word ripples through her. _Avatar, Avatar, Avatar._

Yu cries herself to sleep that night, wrapped Noubou’s arms. In the morning, with eyes that are red and puffy, she spends hours praying to the great banyan-grove tree that their village surrounds.

_Do not let him take my little girl from me. Do not let him take my daughter from me._

_Please. Do not take her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kei's parents are babey i love them
> 
> ———
> 
> NEXT — 1 | the first tree


	3. 1 | the first tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lots of nostalgia in this one. enjoy.

**CHATPER ONE  
_the first tree_**

**I.**

It's in the small details, the little things, that the tribe knows long before Kei even grows tall enough to climb the first branches of the banyan-grove tree.

They see it in the way Kei bends mud—too sturdy, too strong, too solid to just be waterbending. And sometimes when Kei is angry or sad, a strong wind finds its way into swamp, past the leaves and trees and still waters.

They see it in the way Kei speaks of her spirit friends. One old man with a dragon-like beard and a boy just a few years older than her with funny blue tattoos all over his body.

They see it in the strange little snake Kei finds when she runs away and tries to climb the First Tree alone. The waterbender either doesn't notice or doesn't care that it's grown from half the size of her forearm to something longer and stronger than her whole body. She calls the snake Ryuu and the tribe watches its black whiskers twitch with affection each time she hefts the creature across her shoulders.

Kei does not know who she is—but the tribe does and so does the tree.

When Kei turns fourteen, the tree calls an earthbender to her.

It's a man. He's much older than her but not near as old as her papa, and his eyes—green, but not the same green as the swamp people—are wild and wide.

She finds him wrestling Uncle Bo's catgator.

Kei bends her knees, sinks into the swamp, and separates the two in her mix of water and air that she doesn't even recognize as strange. Then she searches for the vines in the water and uses them to pull the stranger to a tree. Ryuu has to adjust himself on her body but Kei doesn't notice; Ryuu is as much a part of her as her heart and lungs and she's used to bending with him on her body. The vines pull tight around the stranger's wrists and waist.

He doesn't fight back.

Kei frowns. Her hands are still raised defensively. "Who are you and why are you here?"

The stranger looks like he's seen a ghost. Maybe he has. The swamp is known to show people their past, especially the most painful moments. It only shows her the dragon-beard man and the tattooed boy.

"Something called me here," he says. He tugs experimentally on the vine holding his right arm in place. Kei tightens it and her eyes narrow.

Strangers are bad for the swamp. Ma and Pa told her so. Not since the Fire Lord started looking for the Avatar in the Water Tribes.

 _"He don't know we live here,"_ Ma said. _"And if he don't know we live here, he can't come lookin' for the Avatar."_

 _Avatar,_ Kei thinks. _Wonder what that'd be like._

She doesn't even think about the wind and the water or the way the earth slides under her feet. You have to be old to be the Avatar and Kei certainly isn't old.

"The tree don't call outsiders here no more. It's dangerous."

Ryuu slithers down her leg into the water at calf-height. He's a good swimmer and Kei snorts with pride as he shoots across the surface and latches onto the stranger's leg. He yelps—startled, not scared—and tries to shake Ryuu off but Kei straps his legs to the tree with another set of vines.

Kei laughs as Ryuu settles on the stranger's shoulder and stares at him. Ryuu, like the swamp, doesn't like strangers.

"It was a vision," the man says, his eyes flickering to the serpent on his shoulder. He sounds oddly relaxed for a trapped man with a snake on his body. "I saw Aang, the last Avatar. He told me the new Avatar needed an earthbending teacher, and we were friends when he was young."

"There isn't an Avatar in the swamps."

The stranger looks at her and blinks several times, like he can't see her quite right. Then an understanding dawns on his tan face and he grins big and wide. "Well, this is where he sent me," he challenges.

Kei cocks her head at the man. She can't let him go because then her ma would be mad. But she's not sure her ma would like her leading him straight to their village either.

She huffs. Only one other thing to do.

Kei slides across the water and hops up the tree she's pinned the man to. She can hear him talking to her, but she isn't listening. No, her eyes are closed and her hand is on the tree. She's looking, looking for her ma and pa and maybe even Uncle Bo so she can tell him she found his catgator.

It takes a minute but she finds them all sitting at the base of the great banyan-grove tree. She wills them to see her, see the stranger, and she pulls her hand away when a feeling, not an emotion or pain of some kind, just a feeling, washes over her like midsummer rains.

Kei hops back down. Ryuu is still on the stranger's shoulder. With her ma and pa and uncle on the way, she doesn't have to worry about what to do with the stranger.

She tries to stay quiet and scare him with a serious face and crossed arms, but she's only fourteen and curiosity gets the better of her.

"Where do you come from?" she asks, swinging from a low-hanging branch by the stranger's face.

"I live in a city called Omashu."

Kei ponders this. "Does it have a big, great tree like here?"

"No, but it does have these pretty cool chutes. Some people use them for mail. I just like to use them as slides."

"I don't think I'd like it there. I like the tree."

The man shrugs. "Easy to say when you've never left here."

Kei gasps. She grips a vine and swings in front of him, hanging there like a baby hog monkey.

"How do you know I ain't ever left?"

His eyes flicker from side to side. Ryuu no longer bothers him and the snake has curled contentedly into his neck.

"Intuition?"

"I don't know that word."

"It means I just felt it in my bones."

"Oh! Like I do with the tree!"

The waterbender decides she likes this stranger. She can feel the energy in him the same way she can feel the energy rippling through the swamp, and she likes what she feels. It's safe and sound but there's something fun and familiar about it that sets Kei's soul at ease.

"My name is Kei," she says finally.

The man's hand moves by his side, but it's still pinned. He moves his shoulders and looks back at her with those unfamilar-familar eyes.

"My name is Bumi."

**II.**

The village leaders tell Kei of a vision the First Tree showed them.

A boy with arrow tattoos drowning in the South Sea. The death of a thousand airbenders. An evil, evil man with hot coals for eyes and a star so close and so bright that the smallest flame grew into a great inferno.

"A spirit called Raava lives in you, Kei," says Elder Renshu. He sits with his long, skinny legs crossed and a banyan leaf hat covers half his face in shadow. "The First Tree showed us who you are and told us what we had to do keep you safe until you were old enough to leave. You are the Avatar."

"Raava?" she echoes. She's never heard of a spirit called Raava, but it rings through her like she's a cave, filling her with sound and surety.

"A light spirit," says Elder Asha, "that's responsible for peace and order."

Kei looks at her chest. "I have light inside me?"

Renshu chuckles. "Something like that."

Bumi sits to the side by her ma and pa. Since untying him from the vines, Bumi hasn't said a single word. Kei looks to him and he smiles at her, crooked with a gap between his two front teeth. Something flashes behind her eyes—a little boy, with wild brown hair and a green headband. Laughter rings in her ears.

"I'm really the Avatar?" asks Kei.

The elders nod.

"Is Bumi going to train me?"

Renshu and Asha look to one another and then to the earthbender who is quietly sipping from a bowl of water.

They haven't had a stranger wander so far into their swamps in nearly thirteen years—not since the girl was born. When the tree told them of little Kei's destiny, it promised the girl protection for as long as it could. Now, it seems, the tree's blessing has worn thin and they know danger will soon come looking for Kei. They could easily chase Bumi out, force him to return to whichever city he's come from, but then Kei would be short a teacher she desperately needs.

"Yes," decides Renshu. "He is."

**III.**

Kei learns earthbending easily enough. Bumi guides her through stances and technique and pushes her until she doesn't want to bend another rock ever again in her life.

A year passes. Kei grows stronger. Outsiders begin to wander further into the swamp.

Kei overhears her mama and papa one night. She's fifteen now and every bit as curious as the year before.

"Bumi made a trip into Gaoling for information. People are saying Sozin is rounding up southern waterbenders and is planning an attack on the north," says Ma. Kei notices that her voice is sad and low. She wants to hug her ma but then she won't hear the rest of what she has to say.

"They're getting desperate," Pa says in a hushed voice. "They know the Avatar isn't a baby anymore. And Sozin is getting old. He knows he doesn't have much time left before his heir takes the throne."

"She's just a child, Nobuo. His son is even worse than his father. You've heard the stories. How can we expect her to do this? She's only a _child_. There's no way she'll be strong enough—" Ma breaks off in a sob. Kei's heart twists and she decides she's heard more than she wanted to hear.

The next morning, she arrives at her training grounds long before Bumi arrives. It's a square-shaped plateau of earth that her teacher ripped out of the swamp so she could learn to seperate the feeling of water and earth. (Kei thinks it's weird not to have mud caked in her bare toes when she bends, but Bumi is the master so who is she to argue.) Her feet slide shoulder-width apart and her arms raise. She tells herself she is an immovable, unstoppable force. She's a mountain and nothing—not even an ugly, old Fire Lord—can move her.

Kei jumps, kicking a large rock towards the trunk of a nearby tree. It doesn't quite reach it. There's not enough power behind the move. She tries thrusting her first forward in a sharp jab to give the rock extra momentum, but her reach is still unreliable.

The rock lands in a puddle of water with a disheartening splash. She sighs and readjusts her stance. Somewhere behind her, the dragon-beard man tells her to sink deeper into her feet and square off her shoulders.

 _Breathe into the move to give it power and out when you release,_ the bearded man says.

 _You're a lot better at this than I would've ever been,_ the tattooed boy says. He's always encouraging her.

Kei nods. She tries again.

This time, the rock blows a hole straight through the center of the trunk.

**IV.**

Four months later, Bumi declares he's taught the young Avatar all that he knows. And while mastery of two elements is something to celebrate, the course of action that comes next is a can't be put off. 

Kei must learn fire and air, but both are short-handed in the field of teachers.

The elders, her parents, and Bumi discuss Kei's training for several days. Eventually, they come to the inevitable conclusion: Kei must leave the Foggy Swamp.

Bumi makes one last trip into Gaoling alone and returns with clothes that are scratchy in comparison to the simple wraps Kei has worn her entire life. He also brings a rucksack large enough to curl Ryuu into and a small stash of supplies that should last them until they make it to Ba Sing Se. (Her father still makes sure to carve her a new bow so that she has something to hunt with if they run through the supplies too quickly or they somehow get destroyed.)

Kei isn't supposed to know why they're going to the capital city but from what she's gathered from eavesdropped conversations, Bumi thinks a flower can help. A White Lotus. His father had known about it and told him that if Bumi was ever in trouble, that's what he needed to look for.

How they came to the conclusion that a flower will stop the Fire Lord, Kei isn't sure. But the tree has magic even she doesn't understand so maybe the flower does too.

When she leaves, her ma and pa see her off. Ma's eyes are wet and Pa squeezes her in a bone-crushing grip. Bumi lays a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. When they've disappeared into the labyrinth of trees, set for Ba Sing Se, he makes funny jokes and shows her how to use earthbending just for fun by juggling rocks and spinning them in his hands. He says the last one was something Aang used to do with his airbending when they needed a distraction to get out of trouble.

He almost makes her forget that she's leaving everything she's ever known.

They make it to the edge of the swamp. With a few twists of her hands, she bends the water out of her boots and reaches up to stroke the side of Ryuu's scaly face.

Kei looks over her shoulder one more time and searches the tree line. She hopes to see something— _someone—_ familiar peaking out at her, but all she sees is a screeching bird. Her ma and pa are long gone.

"You'll be back before you know it," says Bumi. His voice is light and encouraging but even Kei can sense that something weighs it down.

"You really think so?"

Bumi nods. "Absolutely."

They both know he's lying.

**V.**

Kei discovers that the White Lotus isn't just a flower; it's a group of people and they've been around for a long, long time.

Unlike the elders of her tribe, they talk to her like she's all grown up. They tell her they've waited a long time for her to reveal herself, that they looked for her but couldn't find her. They listen to her and they include her in their meetings. How should the Avatar continue her training? When will she be ready to confront the Fire Nation? Where will she learn airbending when the Air Nomads have all been murdered or imprisoned?

Kei mostly just listens. The few things she has to say pertain to her training. Yes, she's mastered earthbending. No, she's never learned the northern healing technique. Yes, she's bent air before and, yes, she's talked to her past lives. (In fact, Aang is laughing at your moustache right now.)

The members of the White Lotus fascinate her. Kei has only seen the olive skin and green eyes of the Foggy Swamp Tribe but she's heard enough stories to know the four nations haven't gotten along since early in the dragon-beard man's life. Nationality doesn't seem to bother the White Lotus. Fire Nation swaps old war stories with Northern Water Tribe and benders mix with non-benders all the same.

Kei listens. She learns and waits. _This is the kind of world I want to make,_ she thinks.

The Order of the White Lotus finds her a firebending teacher two weeks after they arrive but she's far away from their base in Ba Sing Se. In fact, she lived in one of the outer Fire Nation islands. There are concerns about her traveling so far, that she might be caught by the Fire Nation, but Bumi reminds them that the Fire Lord still thinks the Avatar has been born in the Southern or Northern Tribes. They won't look for a little girl with green eyes and freckly skin. (Kei forgets that the world doesn't know a third tribe lives in the swamp. She considers how different Fire Lord Sozin might be if _he_ had grown up with the First Tree to guide him.)

In the end, Bumi and a waterbender from the Northern Tribe accompany her. The waterbender teaches her how to heal and fine tunes her bending for combat outside of the swamp along the way. Bumi continues to drill her until she's able to bend earth with the simple jut of her chin.

They arrive in a town called Hira'a. It's small and secluded, far away from the capital. Only a few Fire Nation foot soldiers are in town and they spend most of their time in a local bathhouse drinking fire whiskey.

Her firebending teacher lives in a small hut at the base of the mountain that looks over the town. It's sagging to one side with a few koala sheep outside.

Bumi knocks on the front door.

A woman, old like her papa, answers.

Before anyone can make introductions, Kei grins wide. "Rina!" she blurts.

The woman looks down at her. Her eyes are a familiar shade of amber and her cheekbones sit high and proud.

"You must be Kei," says Rina, smiling. "I've been expecting you."

"You're the bearded man's daughter!"

Rina laughs and steps to the side so that they can come in. It's cozy inside with a hearth pressed to one wall, a small eating area, and a doorway that leads into another room where Kei thinks she probably keeps her bedroll.

She's still adjusting to the idea of houses with more than one room, houses made out of stones and wood, not leaves and vines.

"Yes, I am Avatar Roku's daughter. The White Lotus told me that you're in need of a firebending teacher. Tea?"

Sifu Bumi and the waterbending master, Himiko, accept the offer gratefully. They sit around a rickety wooden table. Rina pours Kei a cup, too, and sits it down next to her.

With Bumi on one side and Rina on the other, she can feel happiness bursting through her. She feels the same way with Rina as she had with Bumi. Her energy is like a small flame dancing in Kei's palm, big enough to keep her warm and light her path but small enough to keep from burning her.

Kei scoots to the edge of her chair and peers into her cup of tea with thin eyes. Small pieces of leaves have settled at the bottom and it's a pale yellow color. She's never had this drink before. She sniffs it and her nose wrinkles.

The girl notices all three of her teachers are looking at her with humor. Kei feels embarrassed and the tips of her ears, which are thankfully covered by her tangled black hair, grow warm.

She picks up the cup and slurps in a larger-than-necessary gulp. Immediately, she wants to spit it out but manages to swallow her drink and she sets the cup back down.

Maybe her past lives liked it, but Kei was sure she could go the rest of her life without another cup.

Kei pulls her rucksack from her back and pulls Ryuu out. Maybe he'd enjoy a drink.

Ryuu wraps around her arm and his head settles on top of her palm. His forked tongue flicks out and his whiskers wiggle.

"You carry a water serpent with you, Avatar?" asks Rina.

"His name is Ryuu," says Kei. "I don't know what he is. I found him in the swamps. He was sick. I helped him get better and I tried to send him away but he kept coming back. Bumi says every Avatar has an animal guide. I think Ryuu is mine."

"I think so too."

Kei continues to stroke Ryuu's head and hums under her breath. She hasn't been able to simply _be_ since she left home several months ago. With her teachers' energy wrapped around her like a safety blanket, she lets herself think like a girl for just a little bit.

No more bending. No more Fire Lords. No more Avatar duties.

For now, she thinks about her mama and papa and the great banyan-grove tree. She thinks of all of the wonderful (and terrible) things she's seen on her journey. So many new animals and plants and people and cities. She wonders how much more of the world there is to see. Right now, she wants to go to one of the other Water Tribes and see what snow looks like.

Then reality settles in when Rina asks her if she's ever been able to firebend before. Kei scratches the back of her neck and something akin to shame grows in her chest. "I've tried," she says. "I just… can't."

Rina smiles that soft, motherly smile Kei hasn't seen since she left the swamp and shrugs. "That's quite all right. Most Avatars struggle to master the element furthest from their personality. Typically, it's the element opposite their origin so it makes sense you struggle with fire. My father struggled with water the most."

In her mind, she sees a vision of the bearded man. His hair is still a deep brown, pulled into a Fire Nation topknot covered with a crown, and he's wearing a blue parka that swallows him. His waterbending master bends a snake-like drill of water at him that breaks off the portion of the glacier Roku stands on. Roku twists and bends his arms but the water ignores his command and he flies into the water. He emerges, frowning as ice water drips into his eyes.

Kei blinks and her spirit returns to the small hut.

"When can we start?" Kei interrupts Rina as she asks Bumi and Himiko about her mastery of water and earth.

"Well, you've just finished a long journey and I'm sure you're tired—"

"I don't want to wait. Can we start tomorrow, Sifu Rina?"

Bumi interjects. "I'm all for you finishing your Avatar training, squirt, but we just spent almost two months traveling to get here and you spent the entire time training with us. A little rest would do you good."

The young girl in her disappears and something older and wiser takes its place. Kei frowns. "I don't have time to rest. Fire Lord Sozin is destroying the Water Tribes. The western coast of the Earth Kingdom is filled with Fire Nation colonies and the entire kingdom itself is full of spies. Even with Sozin so old, the war isn't going to stop when he dies. People say his son, Azulon, is even worse. You treat me like I'm just a regular kid but... I'm not and I won't ever be one," she says quietly. "You plan my training and my future without me and you don't tell me all the things I need to know. I have a duty to bring balance to the world."

Her teachers watch her with careful eyes. Behind Rina, the tattooed boy nods at her.

 _Are you sure?_ Kei asks

 _They need to know_ , replies Aang.

"Aang didn't die during the attack on the air temples. He'd ran away just before." Bumi already knows this but she figures if she explains it to her other teachers they'll understand her urgency.

"That's impossible," Himiko exclaims. She's old, older than Rina and Papa, old like the great banyan-grove tree. Lines run through her brown face and around her blue eyes. It makes her look like she's angry all the time but Kei knows that the woman's heart is golden. She's always made sure to sneak Kei an extra serving of sticky rice when they get it and corrects her technique with stern instruction instead of force.

The Avatar turns and stares at the waterbender. It's not the stare of a sixteen-year-old girl. It is the look of an ancient, powerful soul. "He died in the South Sea. A storm pulled him under the waves. Avatar Roku provided him with a vision so that he could make a fully-informed choice: Use the Avatar State and remain frozen for one hundred years or drown and allow the next Avatar to reincarnate so they could stop the war from destroying the balance of the world for good." Kei paused. "My life shows the sacrifice he made. I'm not going to waste the extra time he's given me resting."

**VI.**

Kei arrives at Rina's hut at dawn. Her master says firebenders draw power from the sun the same way waterbenders draw power from the moon; she says the rising sun will help her find the fire in her soul.

Rina sips from another cup of tea as she instructs Kei how to breathe and meditate in the morning sun.

"Breathe in through your nose and release through your mouth. Your breath becomes energy within your body and is released in the form of fire. Without proper breath, there cannot be fire."

Kei hums. "Yes, Sifu Rina."

They spend the day breathing and basking in the sun. Kei finds that she likes the feeling of it on her skin. In the swamp, only a few choice pieces peak through the canopy and she hasn't had the time to sit and enjoy the feeling of it while traveling. It turns her skin dark and lightens pieces of her hair. If Ma and Pa saw her, she doubts they'd recognize her. (She's also grown significantly taller and her body is corded with muscles that are only strengthening by the day. When she looks at her reflection, she feels so sure and strong about the person she's becoming.)

Later, when the sun finally begins to sink into the horizon, Rina releases her from her tutelage.

"Be here tomorrow," she says, "at sunrise."

Kei bows and makes the trip back into town where Bumi and Himiko have secured a hut for the duration of her training. It's small with only two rooms but Himiko makes it cozy and she and Bumi always have food ready for her when she comes home.

Himiko feeds her a bowl of sticky rice and fish. Kei eats, drinks what water remains in her flask, and falls asleep promptly on her bed roll.

All too soon, a pigster crows at dawn. Kei rises from her bed roll, shrugs on her new Fire Nation clothes—a sleeveless red top that crawls up her neck, baggy brown pants with a belt with the Fire Nation insignia, and gloves that reached just below her elbow, hooking on her middle finger and leaving her palm bare—and makes her way to Rina's hut.

She does this for what feels like years but must only be a week or two. The strange, controlled way Rina makes her breathe soon becomes natural and slowly a small speck of light begins to emerge in her. When she's sitting in the sun with her eyes closed, her body folded into the Lotus position, she can feel it pulsing in her like a tiny heartbeat. She coaxes it, feeds it, encourages it with each breath.

Finally, when Kei arrives early in the morning after several weeks of patient breathing, Rina says, "Come with me. We aren't practicing your breathing today."

Rina leads her to a path in the forest of bamboo behind her hut. It climbs up the mountain, soft in some spots and so harsh in others that Kei wishes she could use her earthbending to carry herself to wherever Rina is leading her.

It's midmorning when they reach their destination. Kei concludes it's a training area. It's a large open circle with rocks defining the border of the ring. There are scorch marks in the dirt and on the rocks and there are a few burned trees nearby.

"Am I going to firebend today?"

Rina shrugs off the wrapping over her deep red tunic. "That is entirely up to you, Avatar."

Her master begins to lead her through forms that flow into one another and look nothing like the sharp, angry movements she's seen from the firebenders on the road. Rina's firebending reminds her of waterbending in the way it constantly changes, moves, adapts to the commands Rina provides. It's still sharp, though. Still aggressive and powerful and terrifying if not controlled properly.

Rina finishes a set and intructs Kei to follow her movements. Excitement bubbles in her. _This is it,_ she thinks. _I'm finally going to do it._

One fist follows the other and Rina stops her several times to correct her footwork. As they continue moving, Kei understands why she spent so long just breathing. Each punch, each kick, demands her breath and by the time lunch arrives she's covered in sweat, gasping for air. She hasn't created even so much as a small spark which frustrates her to no end but Rina assures her that it's alright. It took Roku months to even learn how the ocean pushes and pulls.

Aang assures her too and Kei has to hide her smile on the back of her fist as the boy cheers her on. She can never see him but his voice flickers in and out of her mind like a second conscious.

On her seventh week in Hira'a, she bends her first flame. Kei shouts and juggles the small thing around her body before it sputters out.

"Rina! Sifu Rina! Did you see it? I did it!"

Her teacher is laughing full belly laughs that shake her entire body as she watches her student thrust her fist out and another small flame fights its way into existence. With the fire in her hands now, she moves through the sets Rina taught her and the flame begins to grow until Kei is bending a full inferno around her body.

Kei finishes with a roar and watches with wonder as a long, messy stream of fire erupts from her mouth. When she's finished, she brings her hands to her chest and exhales the way Rina taught her.

Rina's laughter quiets and pride glows in her eyes. There's also a hint of sadness, but it's not the bad kind. "Congratulations, Avatar. Now let's work on that roar."

**VII.**

While Rina perfects Kei's firebending, whispers of surviving airbenders in the Earth Kingdom reach their small village.

"There's a rumor spreading that there are safe houses high up in the mountains. Airbenders are gathering in them in hopes that they can keep those who remain safe and alive," Himiko says one day over dinner. It makes Kei perk up, puts a little energy in her step after a long day of fire fists and hot squats.

"There are airbenders still alive?" Kei asks. Hope spreads in her chest. This is what Aang sacrificed his life for. She'd thought that she'd lived in the swamp for too long, wasted too much time, to save the Air Nomads from extinction.

Himiko nods. "It sounds like it. This makes finding you an airbending master a lot simpler. When Sifu Rina finishes with you, we can start looking for one of these safe houses."

Kei can't help the wide grin on her face. She shovels down what food is left on her plate and excuses herself, running through the front door as quickly as she can.

Even though their hut is situated in town near all the hustle and bustle of people working, Kei still manages to find a quiet spot for meditating behind an empty apothecary store. When she lived in the swamp, she meditated almost every day. She connected with the tree and it showed her visions of the swamp's history and of all the creatures that lived there. Sometimes it showed her visions of other people's lives, which she now realizes were memories from her past lives. There'd been a woman with blue tattoos fighting a monster of iron and and a man wrapped in green ripping a canyon into existence.

Her journeys had taken a lot of her past-times from her, but she needed to talk to Aang and so she'd make time to meditate.

Kei throws herself on the ground and quickly twists herself into the Lotus position. She calms her breathing and opens her mind. _Aang?_ she whispers.

"Hello, Kei!"

The young girl opens her eyes. Aang sits in front of her, mirroring her position. His gray eyes sparkle and Kei knows before she even says it that he knows too.

"Aang, there's surviving airbenders! They're still alive!"

The tattooed boy smiles and laughs, giddy on the news. "I heard when your waterbending teacher told you. I was so worried. I thought… I thought that maybe the Avatar would be too late to make a difference, but wow!"

Their happiness is a contagious thing. Aang still appears as young as the day he died and Kei has long outgrown him, but together they talk like they're little children. They plan rescuing the airbenders and Aang promises he'll teach her what he can as a spirit so she can prove that she's one of them, too. (He's adamant that he teaches her a move called the air scooter, something he invented himself that allowed him to become a master.)

Kei and Aang talk for so long that soon a pigster crows and the young Avatar realizes she hasn't slept a wink. She's strangely not tired, rather filled with an energy and wonderment she hasn't felt since she first learned she was the Avatar.

"I have to get to training, but we can talk again tonight and you can teach me airbending movements."

Aang nods excitedly. "Absolutely. Good-bye, Kei! Good luck at training!"

**VIII.**

As the months pass and Kei's skills grow, she grows more and more anxious about the surviving airbenders. If she's heard about it in little Hira'a, she knows Fire Lord Sozin has in the capital.

Rina senses Kei's anxiousness and does her best to adjust her training. Kei trains harder, longer, and Rina pushes her to perfection. She knows the urgency in her student and she knows what is at stake.

Kei goes home exhausted, covered in soot, with the occasional burn that Himiko has to heal, almost every day, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

She's been with Rina one year and three weeks, only three months after the airbending rumors began, when the master says Kei has completed her training.

"I've taught you all I know. You still need to practice form and strengthen your breathing, but it's nothing you can't do by yourself." Bumi and Himiko are with her and Rina looks to them. "I think she's ready to find her airbending teacher."

Kei jumps and squeals almost louder than when she firebended for the first time. When she sees Himiko's serious gaze on her, she composes herself quickly and diverts her gaze. "Sorry," she mumbles.

"I can provide you with enough supplies to make it to the Earth Kingdom. After that, you'll be on your own," Rina says. Kei's still struggling to stay still and suppresses a giggle when her master winks at her.

Bumi nods and bows. "That's more than enough. Thank you, Rina."

"It was my honor teaching the Avatar," Rina says, her voice cracking.

Kei smiles and steps forward before she pulls her teacher in a bone-crushing hug. Rina's arms circle her, her chin resting on the young girl's head. Kei feels Rina's lips pressing a kiss to the crown of her head and the wetness of her tears.

"Thank you for being the one to teach me," she whispers back.

**IX.**

The journey back to the Earth Kingdom flies by like nothing. Kei feels more confident than ever. _She's_ the Avatar. And she's going to be the one to save the Air Nomads.

Frequent lessons with Aang have taught her basic airbending moves. While her predecessor can't actually bend anymore, that doesn't stop him from guiding her through the circular footwork and defensive stances. With his instruction, she's even been able to create a less-successful version of the air scooter. When she shows Bumi and Himiko, the two are amazed and Bumi wants to try what she's learned against earthbending.

Kei gets hit with rocks more than she'd like and she wouldn't consider herself a master by any means, but she begins to easily incorporate air into her routine multi-bending drills.

It's almost disheartening when she realizes that finding the airbenders isn't so cut and dry. Bumi says he's not sure what she expected. _They've survived twenty years after the genocide for a reason and it hasn't been by posting flyers that say, 'Surviving airbenders this way! Come find us!'_ he says laughing.

They travel from small town to small town, asking about odd events or people with strange coverings. Eventually, they find a bread crumb trail of whispers and follow it to the mountains in the north.

On the way, they travel through the Serpent's Pass. The sea snakes who'd once called it home are nowhere to be found. According to Himiko, they haven't populated the pass since Yangchen's reign; they'd been hunted for their organ's healing properties due to a plague that'd consumed the continent.

Kei releases Ryuu into the lake. With no other serpents to threaten him, it's the best place she can leave him for now. He's grown too large to carry in a rucksack and Kei knows she can't take him into the icy mountains without hurting him.

She cries when she sets him in the water and nuzzles cheeks with him.

"Hey, I'll come back for you, bud. We can go live on Whale Tail Island and swim with the elephant koi everyday."

Ryuu, the size of a baby dragon and much too heavy for Kei to carry now, hisses and shakes his head before he disappears under the water. She sees his dark purple scales flash under the surface before he disappears.

The Avatar is quiet for the rest of the day. It's the longest she's ever been away from her animal friend.

When Kei has nearly given up all hope, the owner of a small vegetable farm tells her about a group of vegetarians living in the nearby mountains who frequently come down to buy food from him.

"They're always wearing full coverings even if it's summer in the middle of a heatwave!" says the farmer.

Kei grips Bumi's hand tightly when the farmer says this. _Finally_ , she thinks. _Finally, I've found you._

The group replenishes their supplies and not even a day later begin their trek up the mountain.

The higher they go, the colder it gets and Kei finds herself miserable. She's never been somewhere so cold but Himiko says it reminds her of home, just with more rocks. After a day of traveling, Kei sees snow for the first time and Himiko takes the opportunity to further the young Avatar's knowledge of phase changing in combat.

They follow a narrow path through the mountains that appears as if it hasn't been used in years. There are no footprints or trail markers, only the howling wind and a churning in Kei's gut.

She feels like someone is watching her. Kei hopes it's the airbenders biding their time.

When the sun sets, they make camp for the night and squeeze around a small fire that Kei coaxes to life. Bumi stays awake to keep guard and Kei falls into a restless sleep. Her dreams are filled with nothing but darkness and in the morning she wakes covered in a cold sweat.

At high noon the next day, they discover a cabin. It peaks out of the mountains on a flat area of land. Tall trees surround it and make it almost invisible to the average traveller.

Kei stumbles through the snow until she reaches it and pushes the door open. She isn't sure what she expects, but this isn't it.

The cabin is empty and whatever excitement Kei felt sours until it tastes like ash in her mouth.

Still she enters and begins to look around. She pushes back the hood of her coat and tugs off her gloves. In one corner, there is a wooden table with a few items and books on it. Walking over, she begins to inspect and her hope returns.

A book titled _Sky Bison: A History of the Original Benders_ and a golden locket with a bald man on the front are among the items. Then Kei notices an air glider and orange robes in the corner and she lets out a small noise of happiness.

"Bumi! Himiko!" she calls. "Come look!"

Her teachers enter the cabin and begin to look with her. At first glance it seemed like nothing. But now it was everything. Proof that an entire people hadn't been destroyed.

Kei moves to inspect a fireplace in the corner and brushes her fingers across the mantle. Her fingers catch on something and she picks it up. It's a piece of jerky, probably dried from a koala sheep. Kei frowns as she looks at it.

Then she looks up and, for the third time, takes in the room. At first glance, it was empty. At second glance, it was full of timeless artifacts and proof that the airbenders were still alive. At third glance… Everything seemed too perfect. Perfectly placed and organized, strategic in placement.

Kei looks back into the jerky in her hand and she remembers the vegetable farmer. _Air Nomads are vegetarians,_ she remembers.

"Bumi," Kei calls slowly, placing the jerky down. "I don't think any airbenders live here."

"What are you talking about?" he says happily. "Look at all these artifacts! And the coals in the fire are still hot. Aang would be so happy."

"Bumi, there's no kindling."

Her earth master looks around and his face begins to fall and harden.

"And I found jerky over here. Air Nomads don't eat jerky."

Himiko inhales sharply, her eyes wide and alert. "They're luring them out with the rumors and cabin. It's a set-up! We need to—"

The cabin's front door bursts open and four Fire Nation soldiers, clad in their coal black armour, spill through the door.

"You are under arrest by order of his eminence Fire Lord Sozin! Keep your hands visible and do not bend."

Himiko's hands twitch for the waterskins at her side and Kei watches Bumi go deathly still. Three on four? They could take those odds, right?

Kei makes the choice for them.

Stomping down, she rips a chunk of the earth out of the ground and launches it at the group of Fire Nation shoulders. It hits two of them, blasting them through the wall behind them. Bumi and Himiko burst into action, launching a volley of attacks on the two remaining soldiers. Kei leaves them to it and hops through the hole she made in the cabin wall.

The two soldiers are recovering, dazed by the blow. One of them adjusts the helmet on his head and snarls, kicking out with one of his legs and bringing his right fights forward for a powerful jet of flames.

Kei ducks and swings low to the ground, kicking out her foot so a trail of rocks hits the soldier in the foot and puts him off-balance. The soldier falls and Kei finishes him with a sweep of her arms, the snow beneath him carrying him off the side of the mountain.

The remaining soldier gapes at her. "No," he says. "Not possible."

Kei doesn't respond, only changes the snow near her into a whip of water that she lashes out and uses to grip the soldier. She pulls her arms around and then pushes them away, flinging the soldier to the ground, and brings her arm down quickly to slam him in the stomach with her water whip.

She's feeling rather proud of herself when Himiko calls out her name. "Watch out!"

Kei spins and her gut sinks. An entire squadron of Fire Nation soldiers marches down the mountain, surrounding the cabin and closing off any means of escape.

Three to four odds she can handle. But this? She's not so sure. Not without the Avatar State and she's never entered it.

She tries. She really does. She uses every lesson she's been taught and even employs a little airbending here and there to knock soldiers into trees.

But there are hundreds of soldiers, all dying to bring the missing Avatar back to their Fire Lord and she's no match for that.

They tie her up and separate her from Bumi and Himiko. She's bleeding and bruised and burned in more places than she cares to count and it hurts to breathe. When they load her onto an airship, her eyes are too swollen for her to even see where they lead her. All she knows is that it smells like metal and death, and she's never wanted to go home more in her life.

Once they've reached a cell far away from anyone else, they unlock it and toss her inside like she's no more than a sack of rotten fish.

She cries out through the cloth they've tied over her mouth, her body throbbing. She's crying; she can feel the tears making tracks down her filthy face.

"Enjoy the rest of your life in a prison, Avatar," a soldier hisses and the metal door screeches shut. She can hear his boots echoing down the hallway, growing distant and quieter until all she's left with is the aching hole in her heart and the sound of her own broken breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp. this second installment kicked my ass. i've concluded that this will not be a four shot. it's going to take a lot more than that to finish this. i thought i could make kei's story one giant chapter but this here alone is nearly 8,000 words and i'm only about half-way through with it. i really tried to hone in on creating a unique personality/voice seperate from Aang and Korra. while i love korra, i thought that the hundred year war and aang's subsequent actions had a huge impact as her journey as the avatar and she just wouldn't work well in the world I'm setting up in this fic.
> 
> ———
> 
> NEXT — two | the soldier


	4. 2 | the soldier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: discusses attempted sexual assault as well as themes of tortue.  
> it's not discussed in detail but i'll put the warning here anyway. enjoy, lovelies.

**CHAPTER TWO**   
**_the soldier_ **

**I.**

She's forgetting what shade of blue the sky is. When they brought her to the prison, she was unconscious and simply woke up in bondage. She tries to fight, screams her throat bloody and pulls against her chains, but she's all alone here and it only amuses her captors when they see just how much she's exhausted herself.

Time bleeds together in her cell. There is no morning and there is no night; there is only the time is takes for her bruises to fade and for her hope to die.

Not even the schedule the guards have for bringing her food and water keeps her grounded. Sometimes it feels like weeks between rounds; others it feels like mere minutes. All she knows is that starving is better than eating sometimes. She's tired of fighting off too touchy Fire Nation guards. At least when she's hungry she's alone.

And she _is_ all alone when the guards aren't forcing their tongue in her mouth. (They learned quickly after she burned one guard's face off with a breath of fire so hot it melted metal.) Not even Aang or Roku visit her here. She hasn't felt their presence since the mountain and she'd never realized how completely unalone she'd always been until now.

Then one day—or maybe it's night—she does receive a visitor. They pull her chains so tight that her hands turn blue and the leather straps from the muzzle dig into her jaw and ears. It brings tears to her eyes but she _refuses_ to cry.

_I am unyielding and unbreakable like the First Tree. My blood is water, my breath is air, my bones are earth, and my soul is fire. I am the Avatar and I will not break._

A soldier opens her door and bows as her visitor slides into the room.

"Just knock," says the soldier, "and we will open the door again, Your Eminence."

Kei's head lifts, her focus raising from a rusty spot in the corner of the room. _The Fire Lord._

Even in his old age, Sozin is a fearsome sight. His long white hair is pulled back in a traditional fashion, illuminating his sharp jaw and cheeks, and in the darkness she understands why people compare his eyes to the burning embers of a fire. Through the shadows, his mouth is severe and when he looks at her, bound and humiliated, the corners of his lips tip up.

"It's been some time since I last saw you, Avatar."

Kei is confused for a moment— _she's never met Sozin—_ before a memory flares in her consciousness.

Roku reaching his hand out to an old friend—and Sozin denying it. Sulfur rushes her nose and unbearable heat washes over her as a volcano consumes her.

She snarls and tugs on her chains as rage fills her, quick and untamable. Pain races through her shoulders and biceps. "You left us to _die_."

Sozin shrugs and clasps his hands behind his back. "A necessary evil. Roku did not share the same vision I do for the world."

"And your vision includes the annihilation of an entire race? The destruction of _everything_ and _everyone_ not Fire Nation?"

Sozin clicks his tongue. "I wouldn't expect you to understand. It's apparent you grew up among common peasants in this lifetime. I do not wish to destroy the world and all of the wonder it has to offer. Quite the opposite. My country is not the only one that deserves to live in wealth and prosperity. I only wish to share what has made my country prosper."

"You _burned_ the air temples until they were nothing but rubble," Kei snarls, muffled through the muzzle. "Now you're taking waterbenders from their homes and doing _spirits_ know what to them."

"And tell me, Avatar, what do you think my purpose was in these endeavors?"

_Because you are sick. Because you enjoy pain and destruction._

Sozin makes a noise trapped between disappointment and mockery when Kei does not answer.

"Because I was looking for _you_. The Avatar is an outdated notion trapped in the old world. If I am to bring this world into the new, it cannot be held back by something so archaic."

Kei's heart clenches. "You aren't helping this world. You're burning it to the ground and I won't let you do it."

The Fire Lord grins. It's all sharp teeth and narrowed eyes. _He looks like a dragon._ "You can try and stop me. Perhaps in your next life, Avatar. You won't be able to do much from inside this cell."

Sozin knocks on the door and the guard immediately opens.

The Fire Lord turns to him and peers down, his arms folded inside his crimson robes. "Make sure you take your time breaking her in," he says.

When Sozin leaves, he takes a piece of her soul with him. She knows he can hear her screaming curses at him, but she knows the rattle of her chains are like a sweet lullaby to him. Kei doesn't feel the absence until much later but she knows that's the moment it disappeared. She's always thought that being the Avatar made her untouchable. Stopping her, _defying_ her, isn't possible. She's the world spirit. She's strength and justice, peace and mercy, everything the Avatar is supposed to be.

Nothing–not even a Fire Lord stained with the comet–can stop her.

It doesn't feel like she's strong when the chains and leather straps dig deep scars into her wrists.

**II.**

She knows time is like a river, constantly ebbing and flowing, and that the pain she feels is temporary. It will flow into an ocean greater than she is and her time in prison will feel like a small drop in comparison. She's lived hundreds of lives before and will live hundreds more.

Her suffering will end, one way or another, but it's hard to remember that when she's forgotten what it feels like to walk, mud squishing between her toes.

The memory has been replaced with the _snap!_ of a whip and her own strangled cry.

**III.**

She isn't sure when she stops praying to the First Tree. She just knows that she does.

It only makes her feel more alone.

**IV.**

The guards haven't bothered her since she burned one of them, even though they have her gagged now. They're too scared of her, too scared to try for a tale of glory, one night with the Avatar, and Kei is grateful.

She's not sure she could handle it if they took that very last part of her.

There is one guard, though. He's different from the rest. He rotates into her feeding schedule not long after she stops praying.

He takes the time to wipe the blood from her wrists and ankles where her chains have worn her skin raw and cleans her as best he can when it's his shift. The first few times she jerks away and growls low in her throat like a polar bear dog. She doesn't trust him; she doesn't trust _any_ of them. The guard only hums a sweet tune and moves slowly and deliberately like she's a feral animal. (She thinks she might be turning into one at this point but it's the only way she'll ever survive.)

"I've never left the Fire Nation," he says to her one day. He's never spoken before, only hummed. Kei watches him with wary eyes as he dips a rag into a bowl of warm water and wipes away the blood on her back where the warden whipped her to the bone. It's become almost a ritual and he hasn't shown any signs that he wants to harm her but there isn't a bone in her body that trusts him. "My brother has. He's an officer. Mother misses him a lot. I wanted to go overseas like him when I was younger, but one of us needed to stay at home to care for Mother and I didn't want him sacrificing his career when I'd barely started. That's how I got here."

Kei isn't sure what he wants her to say. She knows nothing about how family life fits into the Fire Nation military. That, and she cares very little about the guard's personal life.

He wrings the rag out again and she bites down hard on her cheek when he reaches a spot in her back she's sure looks like shredded meat.

It's not enough to quiet her, though, and she lets out a strangled noise. The guard stops.

Kei's head hangs between her shoulders, her eyes half-closed. There isn't an inch of her body that doesn't hurt, whether it's a dull ache or a sharp lance; it's hard to focus on much else so she doesn't hear the guard coming around to her front.

His bare hand touches her chin and Kei reels. Her heart immediately begins to race and fire flares in her but there's nowhere for it to go. She hasn't been touched since the other guard tried to kiss her. This man had been so careful to avoid touching her directly, always placing something between them, but he'd broken that and somehow Kei feels betrayed.

His touch is gentle as he tilts her head up and she's extremely aware of the calluses on his thumb and pointer finger.

When she looks at him, all she can see is destruction. Golden eyes set in a tan face and hair the color ink combine to tell her who he is and what he's capable of. _Fire_ _Nation_. Her lip curls and she'd snap her teeth if she wasn't muzzled. She settles for jerking her chin away and hissing air through her teeth.

The guard pulls back and frowns. Dare she say it, he almost looks hurt.

And then it's gone and he's aloof and smiling that half-smile again.

"I'm sure you don't care to know about me. We're just about all the same I imagine. I wouldn't want to see me every day either." He pauses and chews on his bottom lip for a moment. She watches him with careful eyes and pushes away the pain-induced nausea rolling in her gut. "I'm sorry," he says. "I just—I don't know. I talk too much when I get nervous and I've just been trying to work up the courage to tell you I don't think what they've— _we've—_ done is right."

Fury, bitter and sour, rises up in her, roars through her body and if she could bend, the ground would shake beneath her and the wind would whistle and howl like it does in through the mountain tops.

 _You're all the same,_ she screams. _You're all grimy, evil, greedy bastards who take pleasure in hurting people. Hurting me._

 _But you know that's not true,_ something deep in her whispers. It's a voice she hasn't heard for a long, long while and it pierces her heart. It nearly sends her into a frenzy. _Rina. Roku. Even the baker's wife in Hira'a who snuck you sweet rolls. They're Fire Nation. Are they the same?_

Her eyes prick and her throat swells. _Aang? You're back._

_I never left._

The guard starts up his humming again. Her thoughts echo around her head, her anger chasing itself like a snake swallowing its tail until eventually it vanishes into nothing. Something else takes its place, slowly growing, a speck of light in the dark.

Kei swallows, her vocal chords grinding together like two dry rocks. It hurts and on the first try she makes a strangled sound that startles the guard into silence.

It's his turn to watch and wait as the young Avatar forces the words from her like she's trying to claw her way out of a mud trap. (Once not too long ago, she'd been a chatty child who'd always had a story to tell. Strange how foriegn things like speaking have become in her imprisonment.)

"My name… is… Kei…"

There it was. Thinner than parchment and barely a whisper, but _there_. Her name. When had she last heard it?

The way the guard smiles tells her he already knew that but he's honored she'd share it anyway. She only hopes that the relief and awe shimmering in the guard's eyes is enough to appease Aang. She wants her friend to come back, keep her company as she counts bolts in the metal floor.

"I'm Jiro," the guard says and for the first time she notices a dimple just above the right corner of his mouth.

**V.**

She's not sure what's changed but something has. Jiro no longer dances around her like she's a caged tigerdillo and Kei stops tensing her entire body in anticipation when he cleans her endless wounds.

They strike mindless conversation. She learns that like many of the males his age, Jiro does not come from a line of Fire Nation officers in one way or another. Before he or his brother entered the military, they'd grown up on a small boat with a fisherman to call father. He talks about salt in his mouth and hair with a fond curve to his mouth that makes Kei think of home, too. A giant banyan-grove tree and bare feet squishing in mud and berries. Drums pounding in the village center as she and other children laugh and dance for the solstice celebration with white paint smeared on their bodies. She thinks of sharing her childhood with him but she's not quite ready for that so she lets him fill the silence with funny tales of the ocean.

The more Jiro talks, the more she finds him a man of many contradictions. A boy made of the brightest fire who enjoys being surrounded by miles and miles of water, who grew up on the sea. A soldier with high ambitions and plenty of talent but not enough brutality to ever move through the ranks. A jailer who provided what small freedoms he could manage.

Jiro begins to take her muzzle off even when she's not eating and sneaks a salve into the prison to rub on the thick scars circling her wrists. He's kind and he never expects anything from her. She wants to question his intentions, keep him boxed in with the rest of the cruel men she's met here, but his sparkling eyes and grin melt that away.

"I could get something better in," he says with a frown as he smooths the muck over the inside of her wrists where pale blue vines peek out from beneath white scar tissue. "But I'm afraid the warden would notice and it's not me I'd be worried about." His eyes flicker to her back and she knows what he's thinking of.

Some days he'll find her barely alive, hanging from her wrists, her back slashed completely open. Or sometimes she'll still be gasping for air, the uncanny feeling of drowning still present in her mind. She prefers the whip over waterboarding. No bender should fear their element the way she's begun to fear water.

Kei shrugs and fidgets a little in her position, trying to find comfort on the cold slab of metal. (During his shift, Jiro also loosens her chains enough so she can sit on the ground. She's grateful and takes the opportunity to hone in on her chi paths and mend what she can in her body by simply encouraging the flow of chi. She suspects it's the only reason her shoulders have survived without too much injury this long.)

"I'll take what I can get," she says. "You already risk too much for me. Idiot."

Jiro makes a noise and continues fussing over the day's injuries but his mouth is crooked with a grin again. She shoos him away finally, scolding him, but it's all pretense.

"You're worse than my mother," she jokes and moves to swat him. Her chains rattle and jump, stopping her short, and her amusement dies.

He tugs on the chain holding her right hand and makes a noise in the back of his throat.

"Jiro," she says, a warning.

He sighs and picks his helmet up from the ground, twisting it back in his head. "You're the Avatar," he says as if those three words are all the explanation she needs.

Kei grunts but dips her head down. She doesn't need a reminder that she's a pathetic excuse of an Avatar, kept alive only so the Fire Nation doesn't have to hunt her down again. She's accepted she'll rot here as long as Sozin wants with only Jiro to keep her sane. She's even accepted that Jiro will likely leave her and she'll have to learn to live alone again.

Another guard bangs on the door, the replacement for the day shift, and Jiro makes quick work buckling the muzzle on and tightening her chains. He shuffles around, removing any trace of hospitality, and disappears out the door. Jiro makes small talk with the other guard, his voice softened and distorted through the door.

Kei closes her eyes and sinks into her chains. Her muscles tighten before they loosen into the familiar form.

 _Aang?_ she calls out. _Take me to a memory._

And he does. There's fruit pies and an older monk with mischief in his eyes and full-belly laughs that all bring warmth back into her body.

This is how she survives.

This, and healing salves that a boy with golden eyes brings.

(Or maybe it's more the boy than the salves but she'll never admit it.)

**VI.**

Jiro disappears for a while. He's there one night and gone the next and Kei is hit hard with the realization she'd begun to rely on the fisherman's son. Heavily.

She doesn't like it, but the bond is there and it won't sever no matter how much she gnaws at it.

And it wasn't even for the wounds, which had taken a deep dive into a pain she hadn't experienced since her first weeks there.

For his company and friendship and—

_No, I can't admit it._

A different guard takes up his place. He's fresh meat and despite the other guards' warning that he shouldn't bother her unless it's for feeding or watering, he tries anyway.

She bristles like a cornered animal when he nervously reaches for his belt buckle and the same thread that holds her together after the warden whips her to the bone surges in her.

The guard leaves with a broken nose, a bloody lip, and one less ear. (She doesn't need her teeth for that. She uses her chains to rip it off.)

They bestow forty lashes from the braided whip onto her raw back. Even when she coughs blood, her tongue bleeding, she doesn't regret attacking the guard.

They even try waterboarding her for a couple hours, leave her gasping through a wet rag as her lungs scream, but still. Not a trace of regret.

She's not sure why. They've broken every part of her so she might as well get this final breaking over. Let them ruin what little dignity she has left. But the old spirit in her, the proud soul she is, acts before she can stop it.

And when it was over with, the guard howling at her chained feet, she couldn't say she regrets letting it take over.

When the warden leaves with his filthy whip in tow, she spits out a mouthful of blackish blood mingled with salt water and stares down the door, fury singing her veins.

It takes a while for Jiro to return.

But eventually he does.

She isn't the same. But neither is he.

**VII.**

Her door inches open and she rattles her chains just a bit to make it clear she's awake and she's watching. She doesn't need another new recruit thinking they can take advantage of her again. She's fought this hard for long enough. Might as well keep it up.

The guard steps in, pauses. He takes his helmet off and Kei can't help the grin that tugs on her face beneath the mask. She wishes she could reach for him, wrap him in a hug, because _spirits_ she's missed him.

But she stops, though, stops thinking about the equal measures of pride and worry that'll spark in his eyes when she tells him she bit a guard's ear off for trying to touch her, when she sees. There's a deep slash on his face, something new and red and raw that slices through his eye and down his cheek.

A muscle in his jaw ticks.

"We're getting you out of here, Kei."

**VIII.**

She tries to tell him he's a _fucking madman_. No one escapes a Fire Nation prison, not men who steal bread, not run-of-the mill benders, and certainly not _her_.

Jiro won't budge. He's determined to whisk her away and after a while she thinks that maybe his sudden spark of rebellion has something to do with the new scar on his face.

He'd always hated keeping her here and had made little comments about her deserving to be free but never something like this.

Her mama always said that one scar on the skin was equal to one hundred on the soul. Kei thinks her mama might be right.

"I'd think you _want_ to stay here if I didn't know better," Jiro snarls. They're arguing for the hundredth time; she's trying to convince him that this is a terrible, _terrible_ idea and it'll never, _ever_ work.

"Of course I don't want to stay here. But I'm not an idiot and I don't want to see you die over something that Sozin will never happen."

Jiro shakes his head violently, dark hair falling over his forehead. The gash on his face has softened from a deep red to a pale pink and it shifts as he frowns and grinds his teeth together.

Kei softens. "What happened when you were gone?"

"Nothing," he bites. He refuses to meet her eyes.

"Jiro, you've always stuck your neck out for me. And I'm grateful. You've made it bearable for me here and I'd like to think that we're… friends. But you never did more than you could manage. You were _smart_ about it and you didn't push limits. What's changed?"

He turns and braces his hands against the walls. Kei wants to reach out and comfort him but her restraints keep her locked to the ground.

"Jiro, _what happened to you?_ "

He rips away from the wall and finally meets her gaze. Those amber eyes flare and snap like a campfire and she inhales a sharp breath through her nose.

"My brother is dead. He died in combat during some uprising in the colonies. They were going to ship his things and his body back, but I wanted to go there and get him myself. I don't know why I wanted to go so badly. Maybe it had something to do with seeing the last place my brother was alive or finally leaving the islands."

Her heart aches for him right away. She's never experienced loss like that but she couldn't imagine losing anyone close to her. The closest she's ever come is Bumi and Himiko but she still has hope at least.

"When I got there, it wasn't at all like I'd thought it would be. We were always taught in school that we were doing the other nations a favor by invading. We were sharing our technology, our wealth. And, I don't know, Kei. I knew before I left that what they've been doing to you wasn't right and I didn't think it was right to kill the Air Nomads, but I didn't think it could _all_ be bad. Not when so many of my friends and family have been apart of this. We wouldn't do all that if it was _wrong_.

"But the colonies… there's so much destruction. We're not rebuilding _anything_. People live in complete poverty. The natives are harassed and assaulted and used for labor until their bodies can't handle it anymore. We're not bettering anyone by being there. I just didn't know what to think or do. It wasn't like anything I'd been told."

Recently, in her meditation, she and Aang had spoken a lot. He'd been the only one to visit her so far and refused to tell her why he had disappeared for so long and why Roku still stayed away. The younger boy was trying to guide her to something but it took her a while to figure out what exactly it was.

The airbenders were the most obvious victims of the war, having nearly been slaughtered to extinction. The Water Tribes came in a close second as their culture and bending styles were slowly wiped away with each siege or invasion. Even small areas of the Earth Kingdom that were colonized had clearly been devastated by Sozin's control.

The world was clearly in imbalance and Sozin had been the creator of a lot of suffering.

And then Kei realized—no one spoke of the Fire Nation itself.

Boys were ripped from their mothers while bending was warped and manipulated for power and control. Sozin and his team of advisors gutted children's minds and filled them up with whatever propaganda they thought would breed the best generation of soldiers. They lied to the people and used them like fodder.

"The day before I was supposed to return home, there was another uprising. A faction of earthbending rebels that had evaded capture led an assault on the Fire Nation headquarters. I was drawn into the fight. I—I killed someone for the first time. They were the one who gave me this scar. They cut me as I watched the life leave their eyes. And then before I'd even realized what I'd done, I was forced to kill again—and again. It was the most awful thing I've ever had to do. When it was all done and over with, one of the soldiers told me that I'd get used to it. 'They're just a bunch of savages,' he said. 'We're doing them a favor.'"

Hysteria dances across every line in Jiro's body.

"Who even _says_ that? These are boys that I grew up with. They're family and friends and they're being ruined by something they have no say in. The way those rebels looked at me… I can't even blame them, Kei. What we've done to them is awful. What's being done to us—I can't stand for it." And then the man in front of her looked at her and her heart stopped. _Hope_. His eyes were brimming with it, pouring over, filling the room. She wanted to panic. She couldn't feel that, didn't need it or want it, couldn't have it if she were going to survive here. "I'm getting you out of here or I'm going to die trying. The world needs you, Kei. I didn't see it before but I do now and I'm going to play my part in this."

She opens her mouth to fight him again. Tell him no again. But that old spirit, that proud spirit, rises up in her again.

"Okay. What do we need to do?"

**IX.**

He begins unlocking her chains at night. She learns to walk again, her first steps wobbly like a newborn foal. When she's mastered that, she relies on years of memories of bending lessons to guide her back into a state somewhat capable of fighting.

They plan. Jiro times shift changes and memorizes blueprints he doesn't already know by heart. She tells him of the Order of the White Lotus. _Maybe they can help us once we get to the outside._ Jiro looks at her like she's crazy when she mentions the ancient group but promises to look for them.

It's exhausting. Being chained and immobile for so long has eaten away at her strength and Jiro has to hold her up at times. She cries other times, frustrated and aching, when they can't seem to find the right way out. But she's full of determination now and she's seen— _felt—_ much worse.

The pain of learning to be human again is child's play in comparison.

**X.**

They have to move their plan along much more quickly than they expected when Jiro catches wind of an important visitor. Azulon, the Fire Lord's heir, has announced a visit and she has a feeling once he arrives, it'll be a long time before she ever gets an opportunity to escape.

 _"He wants to see the Avatar,"_ the warden tells Jiro. _"See what kind of creature his father's got all chained up in the Boiling Rock."_

They're set to escape two days before Azulon arrives. When the time comes, Jiro brings her two waterskins and a prison guard uniform.

Jiro's hands shake when he slides the keys he stole into the chain's locks. They fall to the ground and Kei kicks them aside. She rubs her wrists, takes in the way they look without metal coiled around them. She feels a thousand times lighter, like a bird released from a cage.

She strips out of her threadbare jumpsuit, stained with blood and dirt, and pulls on the spare uniform. The material is thicker, warmer, than anything she's worn in ages and a shiver of relief rolls through her as a chill is chased away. Then she swings the waterskins around her shoulder and lets them bounce on her hips. The stoppers hang free so she can bend the water out at a moment's notice.

Jiro looks her up and down and plunks a helmet on her head. He cocks a grin but it's laced with nerves.

"There," he says. "Now you look like any other scrawny new recruit."

Kei scowls and playfully slugs the man in the shoulder. "Let's get going. We don't have long if we're to go off your information."

Shift changes have increased with Azulon arriving. It's made it harder to work around but if they move quickly, they should be fine. Jiro said he'd timed them the day before. They have ten minutes before the next guard arrives.

Her breath echoes in the helmet like the sound of the tides pulling back. Jiro has a hand on the inside of her elbow, supporting her still-weak body. (They'd had some time to recover her petrified muscles but there was only so much someone could do in a room only seven feet long and five feet wide and so little time.)

The hallways look the same as they had when they'd first dragged her deep down into the prison's belly. Large rivets bullet dark sheets of metal into the walls and torches light the way, spaced evenly every twenty or so feet.

When they come across the first soldier, her body tenses and her fingers grow white as they fist. She reaches for the water in the skins and she can feel it roll under her command.

But he only nods his head in respect and continues on.

When he's out of range, Jiro says, "We need to hurry. He's early. He'll be coming to check on me and we're not there. We've only got a couple minutes before the alarm is sounded."

Kei nods and picks up the pace of her steps. Her legs burn under her and she knows they already want to give out. _Impossibly weak. But in this I cannot fail._

_My blood is water, my breath is air, my bones are earth, and my soul is fire. My blood is water, my breath is air, my bones are earth, and my soul is fire—_

They've made it to the lift and have begun the rise to the surface layer of the prison when a bell begins to sound just above her. It rings loud and clear— _ding dong ding dong ding—_ and her heart picks up pace. Her throat is sticky as panic sets in but she pushes it down.

_In this I cannot, will not, fail._

The lift screeches to a stop at the next available floor. She looks up quickly. Only four more levels and they'd reach the surface. Quickly, the doors to the lift are swung open and two guards stand at attention outside it.

The first guard, a tall lanky man whose ponytail swings beneath his helmet, frowns. "There's an escaped prisoner. We're on lockdown," he says gesturing to the bell still ringing high above. "Lift's out of use now."

Jiro clears his throat. "Got it. We'll head to the command center. She's a rookie. The warden probably doesn't want one handling an escapee."

The guard nods and gestures for them to pass them. Doors to the stairwell leading up are in sight and Kei's fingers itch to wrap around the handle and launch herself up until she can finally see the blue sky.

But then—

"Wait a minute…" the second guard says and then he looks at her like he's finally seeing her. Looks past the helmet into her unusual green eyes and spots the waterskins strapped to her sides. His eyes widen and he looks at the way the uniform doesn't quite fit her right.

Kei's blood runs cold.

She reacts on instinct. (She's an instinct kind of girl.)

The water rushes out of the flasks, rushing and whirling and twisting. She lashes one arm out in an unforgiving water whip and it hits the second guard square in the chest. He slams into a wall, the metal groaning and echoing, and slumps to the floor.

Fire flashes in her peripheral as the first guard lets out a guttural battle cry and she switches stances, falling into old habits, as she prepares to redirect the onslaught.

Jiro beats her to it, reaching out to grab the fist guard's offensive arm, and twists him so his back is to him. He slams a flat palm into the space between his shoulder blades, right on his spine, and the man falls with a pained gasp. He tries to rise but Kei watches him struggle to even lift an arm.

"What did you do?" she hisses.

"Hit a central chi area. Now let's go. Someone had to have heard that."

Chi area? Kei looks down the hall past the lift and catches a glimpse of metal bars. "No, wait."

She moves as quickly as she can, her body invigorated with adrenaline. She finds mass holding cells with men and women still in their civilian clothes. They take one look at her and howl furiously.

Ignoring them, she bends the water out of her flash and pushes it into the lock. The water freezes under her command and the lock groans and snaps.

The cell door swings open and the people inside look at her and whisper among themselves. Kei lets loose an irritated noise.

"Come on now. _Go_."

They don't require any further orders and Kei makes quick work the two other cells nearby before jogging back to Jiro. Two men from the cells have cornered him and she barks at them to leave him be, water hovering at her side.

The men listen before they begin to barrel down the halls and up the nearby stairwell.

"I can't tell if you're a fucking idiot or a genius," Jiro murmurs. Kei simply grabs his hand, squeezes.

"Had to improvise since we didn't make it to ground level unrecognized. I prefer genius."

Jiro pushes her to the stairwell and together they rush up the winding path, boots slapping against metal. Escapees that have run well ahead of them begin to shout as a door opens just above her and soldiers file in.

She swears under her breath and reaches for the water again. Jiro clamps a hand around her wrist and shakes his head. His eyes burn bright as he stares at her and something in her stomach flutters from the intensity.

Jiro swallows and whatever had simmered between them fizzes out as guards and prisoners collide. "We maneuver around them. You can't save everyone here in the state you're in."

Kei's heart flutters a bit, guilt eating at the edges. The familiar feeling of failure grows in her but Jiro refuses to let it consume her as he pulls her past the fighting masses, ducking and parrying guards with calculated jabs with his knuckles into key points.

He knocks back a few guards with sweeps of his legs and blocks with his forearms, carving a path through the narrow space. It takes longer than it should to progress up only a few flights of stairs but eventually they burst into open air.

The scent of water fills her lungs and she wants to weep with joy. She can feel it all around her, connecting her with the world again.

It's chaos. Fire collides with everything in sight as all types of benders attack guards and the bells are still ringing above them. (Everything but air benders, of course. Wherever they're hidden, it's even more secure than the Boiling Rock.)

Jiro points. "There, we need to get to the lifts. They're the only way out of here. You get on and I'll send you across."

Kei's head whips so fast it nearly sends black spots spinning into her vision. "What do you mean you'll send me across. How will _you_ cross?"

He grimaces. "I won't. But we're not going to argue about that. You need to get to safety. On the other side are some contacts from the White Lotus. You probably know them better than I do. Don't stop moving until you reach them. They'll take you to safety."

"I'm not leaving without you, Jiro."

"You will. The world needs you more than it needs me."

"They'll kill you or worse. I'm _not leaving you—_ "

Jiro grunts, cuts her off, begins to pull her through the yard. When a guard charges them, an arc of fire lashed out with a pointed kick, Jiro goes low and swings back up, swift and furious. He hits him in three spots along his arm with two sharp knuckles. Kei watches the arm go limp and while the guard is distracted, Jiro hits the guard in the throat. He drops with a heavy thud.

Jiro reaches back, meets her eyes, deep with something, something like—

She chokes in a breath; her throat feels tight and her eyes burn. It's not fair. Not fair at all. 

_In this I will not fail._

They rush to the platform. An empty car is waiting and Jiro pulls her to it. Her body is frozen. She can't leave him, can she?

He pushes her inside, closing a half-door to trap her there. His adam's apple bobs when he swallows and she can feel his energy shifting as he begins to move away.

"Jiro, wait!" she cries and pulls him back to her by the lapels of his uniform. She clutched the cloth like it's a lifeline, till her knuckles are white with fear.

They're chest-to-chest, sharing the same breath. Jiro raises a hand and brushes it across her cheek. She's crying? Oh, spirits, she's crying. Dammit. Dammit. _Dammit_.

"It'll be alright."

She shakes her head, her vision a blur.

"Hey, hey, listen—I'll be okay. I promise."

It's so light she swears she imagines it, the barest brush of lips. She takes in a sharp breath, her eyes squeezed shut. _This might be the last time I see him._

She presses her lips even harder to his.

It's all teeth and tongue now, deep breaths as if she can inhale some piece of his soul to keep with her forever. She wants to tattoo his taste and touch into her memory. Because she's never been able to admit it until now. Never wanted to.

Kei loves him. _With all her damn heart._

She loves a Fire Nation soldier who knew the sea long before he ever knew the flame. A Fire Nation soldier who is selfless and kind and brave; who says all the right things at all the right times. She loves him because he sees her; he sees _her_ , not the Avatar. Not a savior or a pawn or anything in between. Just a girl from the swamp. Just a girl. Stupid and young and head-over-heels—

She can't let him go but Jiro, her rock and strength who's been able to make all the hard decisions for her today, has enough strength for the two of them and pulls away. Kei inhales, clings to that scent of smoke and salt. He pulls down the lever before she has time to protest.

The lift whines and groans as cables pull it towards the lip of the mountain. Jiro grows smaller and smaller and her vision of the battle below grows.

Terror bubbles in her throat as she sees guards, at least thirty of them, surge toward Jiro. He fights strong, holds them back with the same sharp jab of his two front knuckles. His leg swings in a kick that hits one man at the top of his spine.

But strangely, she realizes, he doesn't bend. No fire walls or whips to keep them back. Just those two hands.

He's a nonbender.

That old, powerful thing in her spirit starts to rise and ancient power fills her bones. _He can't fight them all with no bending like that._ One guard finally grabs hold of Jiro, rips his arms behind his back, and slams him to the ground.

Light floods her vision. Her blood thrums, hums like electricity is coursing through her body. She can feel the water rushing and rolling below her, the wind howling in her ears, the mountains shaking.

_Don't you dare lay a hand on him don't you dare lay a hand on what is mine DON'T YOU DARE—_

A hand wraps about the back of her neck and pulls her back. Pain ricochets through her skull.

The light fades and darkness consumes her.

**XI.**

A voice so far, far away tries to coax her from the shadows. It's achingly familiar, an anchor in her mind's storm.

She follows it, grasps for it, but slips and falls deeper into the black.

**XII.**

"The Avatar has escaped, Father."

"Hmph. It seems they did a poor job breaking her spirit in."

"What's more… is they say she nearly accessed the Avatar State."

"She's growing powerful. Even when we took everything from her, she still managed to be quite resilient. I made a mistake leaving her there to rot. She's a problem that needs to be dealt with permanently."

"May I speak freely, Father?"

"Of course."

"We didn't take quite everything from her. Have we learned anything about the girl's home? Her family?"

"She's not from either of the polar water tribes but something tells me she grew up surrounded by other waterbenders. When she was apprehended, the men noted she used a peculiar style that they'd never encountered before. She noticeably lacks the tribes' dominant characteristics and looks rather… earthern. A few of their belongings suggested they'd spent some time in Gaoling."

"There is that marshland outside the city, Father. I believe the natives call it the Foggy Swamp. There's rumors of a people who reside there."

"Then perhaps we should send men to investigate."

**XIII.**

When she wakes, Kei thinks that maybe the prison and the escape and the whippings were all just a terrible dream. A soft bed supports her body with a firm pillow placed under her head. She moves to roll over with a sigh but stops when pain races up her spine and to her head.

She hisses, touches the back of her head gingerly. There's a small bump, tender to the touch.

_Where am I?_

Kei knows it's not the prison. The chains are missing and she's been redressed in fresh clothes that smell like sandalwood and soap. Her wrists and ankles are wrapped with white bandages that smell awful. Further inspection reveal a green paste lathered around the scars and wounds that looks all too familiar. _Swamp healing._

She peaks under her clothes and sees that her torso is wrapped with bandages, too. If she wriggles around a little bit, she can feel the mud sinking into her wounds.

Definitely not the prison. But the inside of her room doesn't give her any clues as to who's taken her captive this time.

_Time to take a look._

Kei stands slowly. She rubs her head and shuffles around the room, looking for something to arm herself better with. (She was a shoddy airbender and a competent firebender before imprisonment and there's no telling if she'd have access to earth or water outside her room.)

She finds a bowl of water in the corner of the room and bends it out, flexing her hands as it curls around her. In a way, it reminds her of Ryuu and the way he used to hang on her body. The thought of her guide makes her sad; she misses him greatly and hopes he's found peace in the pass she left him in.

Now armed, Kei opens the door of her room into a hallway. The floors and walls are all wood that creak under her weight. Not a Fire Nation battleship. That's a good sign.

She's light on her feet, an act that doesn't come difficult to her since she hardly weighs more than a koala sheep right now. Starvation will do that to a girl. Bare feet slide against the floor and she breathes slowly, soundlessly, through her nose.

Finally, Kei finds a short set of stairs that lead upward. Even from here she can smell the fresh air, taste the salt, the energy of the vast unforgiving sea.

There's no one on the upper deck when she pokes her head out. Just blue skies and the ocean rolling all around her.

_Where am I? And where is everyone?_

The sails raised give her no clue as to who had her but they finish off the possibility of her being back in Fire Nation custody. They're simple and white, billowed out with the wind. Not a steam engine, which haS been their preferred use of mobility for some years now.

More than likely, she's in safe hands. Jiro had said the White Lotus would be waiting for her on the other side of the lift. Was that who had her? Had one of them stopped her from entering the Avatar State?

Anger pinches her face. _I could've saved him, all of them, in the Avatar State._ Jiro was more than likely dead now but she shoves that thought deep down before the gravity of it can dawn fully upon her. She should find out where she is and who has her, but she's so tired. The short journey from below deck has her feeling like she could go for another nap.

Instead she sits cross-legged near the beak of the ship and lets the wind blow her hair off her face and shoulders. If there's one thing she needs more than sleep, it's this. She hasn't felt it in so long. Hasn't felt so free since before her capture. She'd never been just human; there was always wind and water and earth, following her wherever she went. Being severed from things so deeply ingrained in her identity, her soul, had been one of the hardest things about the Boiling Rock. But being forced to fear the things that had once brought her comfort? Even harder still. 

Kei's jaw clenches and she swipes at a tear that leaks from the corner of her eye. No use crying. No use being scared. If someone on the ship wanted to hurt her, she wouldn't stop them. For now, she'd enjoy the sun and let it coax the fire in her blood back to life.

She plays with the water in her hands and simply enjoys the feeling of being connected with the world again. Some time passes, long enough for the midday sun to move slightly further west.

"Kei?" a voice calls out and the water in her hands falls, soaking into the deck.

Turning, she sees an all too familiar face. Her eyes sting again and she bites her lip to prevent herself from letting out an embarrassing noise of joy.

Bumi stands before her. He's still tall and sturdy with wild brown hair. Bushy brows slant over twinkling eyes and she notices a new scar slashed through his left eyebrow.

She barrels into his arms, pulling him into as tight of a hug as she can muster. Her mentor's arms wrap around her, careful around her back where wounds still sting.

"You're alive," she whispers, more to reassure herself than anything else. Her nightmares had been filled with horrific images of Bumi pulled apart or burned to death. "Where's Himiko? Is she here? Is she alright?"

The earthbender pulls her back by her shoulders and takes a long look at her. His gaze lingers on the way her collarbones poke through her clothes and the sharp point to her chin.

"She's down in the mess hall. Come on, let's change your bandages and then we can get a hot meal in you. Everyone is excited to see you. I had to guard your door to stop them from breaking it down to wake you up. You must've slipped by when I got lunch. Sneaky little thing," he jokes.

A small smile creeps across her face.

Her knees bounce restlessly as Bumi changes her bandages. He says the paste has drawn out most of the infection and Himiko should be able to repair the rest with a few healing sessions.

When he's wrapping new bandages around her, her belly emits a loud growl and pink tinges her cheeks and ears.

Bumi laughs, claps her gently on the back with a calloused hand, and leads her to the mess hall.

Sitting at a short table with six places set are two familiar faces. Two unfamiliar people accompany them—one has a hood pulled far up over their head so she can barely see the person's mouth—and Kei can't help the defensive shiver that runs up her spine.

Her waterbending escort from the White Lotus shoots up to meet Kei, her chair nearly falling as she boosts out of it.

Himiko looks older, aged, and there's something odd about her that Kei can't place. Same white hair, crystal blue eyes, tan skin—whatever it is, it doesn't stop her from squeezing the life out of her teacher and grinning into her shoulder.

"It's so good to see you. I'm glad you and Bumi got away in one piece."

A dark look passes over Himiko's face and Bumi lays a hand on Kei's shoulder.

"Not quite, Kei," he says slowly. "We were with a convoy of soldiers for a few weeks. They attempted to interrogate us. They wanted information on you and, uh, we wouldn't talk."

"Oh," she says, frowning. "But you got away, though."

Bumi shook his head. "The White Lotus had gotten wind of the ruse they were playing with the airbenders. They were able to intercept information on our location and free us. But not before they… well, they cut Himiko's tongue out."

Kei inhales a sharp breath and looks back to the waterbender. Looking now, she can see the hollow way the woman's cheeks cave in and the stillness of her mouth.

Tears spring to her eyes and she bites down on her bottom lip as a wave of grief rolls through her. _They'd done this because of her._

Himiko smiles with a closed mouth, shakes her head, and grabs Kei's. The Avatar opens her palm as the older woman begins to draw letters

_N-O-T_

_Y-O-U-R_

_F-A-U-L-T_

She opens her mouth to protest but Kamiko silences her by laying a finger on the Avatar's lips.

_H-A-P-P-Y_

_Y-O-U_

_A-R-E_

_S-A-F-E_

Kei smiles weakly at her teacher and wraps her in another tight embrace. "Me too. I'm glad you're here."

When she's done with her reunions, Bumi finally introduces her to the strangers in the room.

"This is Mela," he says, pointing to the cloaked figure. They stand, push back their hood—a blue arrow points down her forehead to dove gray eyes and a kind mouth. She's young, only a few years older than herself, but there's timelessness in the fine lines around her face. Kei's mouth falls into a soft 'O'.

The airbender bows, one fist placed into a flat palm. "It's an honor to meet you, Avatar Kei."

She returns the bow. "It's my honor. I've yet to meet an airbender in my lifetime. It must've been a risk to come with Bumi."

Mela hums. "Not at all, Avatar. When the White Lotus rescued your companions, I was among the other prisoners previously captured from the ruse. I'd been traveling with family when we were found out but when your companions said you needed an airbending master, I offered my services. I've been with them this last year as we've searched for you."

"She's been a great help," says Bumi proudly. "She was in charge of communication with your prison guard and provided extensive knowledge on the Fire Nation prisons."

Mela grins sheepishly and shrugs her shoulders, cloak fluttering. "My family tried to learn as much as they could to rescue those of our people who'd been captured. It was nothing."

"Thank you, truly," says Kei. "And who are you?"

The second stranger is a man. He's tall, layered with lean muscle, and silver streaks through his otherwise black hair. A katana is strapped to his side and it's then she picks up the small white scars dashed through his skin from years of work with the blade.

"My name is Takashi. I'm a member of the White Lotus. I am here to ensure you make it to Ba Sing Se," he says, face stern and flat.

"Ba Sing Se? Is that where we're headed?"

Bumi makes a face that sends Kei back to her days as his student. Blatant disappointment colors his features. "Takashi, _enough._ She deserves to know and I think she's capable of making her own decision after what she's been through."

"What? What is it?"

Himiko and Bumi share a long look before her earthbending teacher says, "The Fire Lord is furious you escaped. He's sending men to the swamp to look for your home. He's going to burn it to the ground."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the second piece of book two: water. it took me a little bit as i've been working a lot and it's monstrous but it's done. i also have a major piece of chapter three finished as well and it's flowing well because it's all kicking ass and taking names later. yeehaw. also, thank you guys for the feedback. it makes me hella happy to see you guys as invested in these characters as i am. ps, i've figured out my main conflicts for the final two avatars in this fic and i'm excited as all get out to share it with y'all. I even have them named.
> 
> ———
> 
> NEXT: three | the genocide


	5. 3 | the genocide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: minor character death(s)  
> it's sad. very sad. someone give my girl a hug.

**CHAPTER FOUR  
 _the genocide_**

**I.**

They travel fast and hard. Despite Bumi's protests, Kei spends every moment after his revelation bending the water around the boat, urging it forward.

"You're _starved!_ " he seethes. Sweat beads on her brow and her arms ache but all she can think about is her village and the undeniable danger they're in— _because of her._ "You need rest. Have you taken a look at yourself? You've been out of the Boiling Rock, the Fire Nation's _worst_ and _most_ _notorious_ prison, for less than two days and are in no shape for this kind of bending. Getting there a few hours ahead of schedule won't be worth anything if you're barely alive!"

Kei shakes her head. He's right, of course, but she's been helpless for too long and she'll be damned if she's helpless like that again.

Her earthbending master makes a few more attempts to talk her into rest but none of them are successful. He leaves in a storm of frustration and muttered curses. If they were on dry ground, the dirt below her would tremble and shake—but they're not. They're in the ocean and Kei understands why her two kin tribes have taken up residence in the middle of it. She's always felt her most powerful when they traveled by boat, surrounded by miles of crystal blue water.

An image of a young Jiro sitting on the ledge of boat shoving stolen eel jerky into his mouth flashes through her mind's eye and her heart aches. She blinks back burning tears and tries to focus on other things.

Her arms rotate into another bending stance and she leaves Jiro far behind to drown in the boat's wake.

A little after Bumi leaves another person takes up residence next to her. She doesn't hear them arrive but their presence reaches out and dominates every inch of the deck the same way storm clouds swallow a blue sky. Kei knows who it is without looking.

"If you've come to try your hand at stopping me, don't bother," she says without turning her head to look at Mela. She rotates her arms again and sucks in a breath that sears through her lungs, exertion weighing her down. (She's using the same bending movements her people do to move the swamp skiffs through the swamp and this strikes something in her, a bitter sense of irony perhaps.)

Mela continues her silent watch, just out of arm's reach. She's not wearing the traditional orange robes Kei has always read about, rather a set of plain tan trousers and a loose fitting white shirt, but she supposes that what subtleties Mela can employ to avoid detection, she does.

"Airbenders don't grow up the same way that most of the world does," says Mela after a long minute. "We come together once a year during the summer solstice and throw a festival that lasts a week. There's games and food and it's only then that our people mate. We part ways afterwards and the women who fall pregnant endure it without the men."

Mela pauses and Kei feels a slight wind pull her clothes tight around her body before it lets go. She wonders if it was the airbender girl or simply just nature.

"I know it seems strange to outsiders but it's how we've always lived. When the children have been weaned from their mothers, they're sent to another temple. The boys go to one of the polar temples and the girls are sent to whichever temple their birth mother does not reside in. It's to help us reach enlightenment, the ultimate goal of any airbender. We can't have earthly attachments that tether us the way a mother or father bonds with their child does."

Kei grunts, eyes scanning the horizon like she can will the swamp to rise out of it. Bumi says that they have at least a week left, but that's with natural winds and waters.

"When the Fire Nation attacked, I was still a little girl. Maybe three or four years old. I don't remember much about that night except the comet," she admits. "It was so big and bright that it made the sun look like a tiny star and it turned everything orange. And the smell. I remember that, too. I'd never smelled anything like it, anything so awful. Now that I'm older, I know that that's what burning flesh and hair smell like, but I remember thinking I could smell my sisters' fear. Tart and so heavy I could even taste it on my tongue.

"A small group of us escaped, maybe four or five of us. We fled the mountain and left our dying sisters behind and we moved for days with only brief stops for rest and water. One of the sisters had been badly burned and died on the second day but we didn't have time to perform her death rituals her properly. Of course, this part I've only been told. I don't remember it myself. We moved until we were sure the Fire Nation couldn't find us and even then we were scared of what would happen. The months following the comet were chaos. Sozin had been able to kill most of us with the extra power the comet gave him but the Fire Nation knew there were others like us who'd evaded the slaughter. He hunted those who escaped and burned us alive on pyres."

Kei imagines a small Mela with soot on her cheeks and ash in her hair. Something bubbles in her throat but it's easy to push away with the exhaustion dragging her body down.

"Why tell me this?" Kei asks. "I… I know I've failed in protecting your people. I know I've been locked away as Sozin's picked off those who remain. But I understand what's at stake. I understand there's a whole culture, a whole race of people, relying on me."

"You misunderstand me, Avatar. While I don't remember much from the invasion, I still bear the scars." Mela comes to stand closer and flips her arms so the inside is showing, thin blue vines tracing milky skin. But what stands out the most are the patches of skin that are mottled and stretched, disfigured and shrunken. Skin devoured by an enhanced fire that destroyed all it touched. "I bear them here, but also here."

Mela suddenly grabs Kei's hand, delicate fingers brushing the scar tissue that ropes around her wrists, and places it over her heart. A steady beat thrums below her palm and awe fills her for a moment before panic replaces it she rips her hand back. She doesn't like being touched anymore. Not by anyone. Certainly not a stranger.

"I understand, Kei, what it's like to lose your home and family. Your entire culture. I came to tell you that had I known, had I been able to warn my brothers and sisters, I would have tried. I would have tried even if it meant sacrificing my own body and soul."

Relief swallows her, a brief understanding flickering between them as Kei's desperation to be understood and heard is received loud and clear. Her reflection stares back at her from Mela's gray eyes, chin sharp and proud but a near imperceptible wobble to her mouth.

"Come. There's an easier way to get this ship moving faster. It's futile to try and tame the ocean. La is a proud spirit. I doubt even the Avatar can tame him. But perhaps we can convince the winds to guide us a little faster."

Kei stops, lowers her arms. The airbender has already made her way to the upper deck where the sails sit nearly level with Mela's line of vision. She motions for Kei to follow and, slowly, the Avatar does.

"You've been able to bend air before, yes?"

Kei nods. "I've just never had a teacher. Unless you count Aang but he can't really bend as a spirit; he always just showed me movements."

"Then you're already halfway there. Place your feet like so and raise your arms. Air is the element of freedom and its chakra is located in the heart. When you reach for the energy inside you, draw from memories of love. Use the love you have for your family and people to move the air around you. Direct it into the sail."

Mela demonstrates, her feet swirling and spinning and her arms coaxing the winds around her. Kei watches with fascination as the girl moves through the wind rather than against it, like she herself is made of aether.

A gust builds and Kei raises her own arms to follow suit. Her eyes close and she tries to search for the brightest memories in her.

Her time in the prison surfaces, thoughts of water-logged lungs and broken bone and torn skin overshadowing anything else. Bumi told her she'd only been at the Boiling Rock for a year but it feels like eons when she tries to remember her life before. The memories are dark like a candle has blown out in a windowless room and refuses to light again, refuses to show her what the wallpaper and decor look like again.

So she latches onto her life _then_. There had been one thing that made her life bearable and his name was Jiro. She thinks about him and his stories and his kindness and the dimples in his cheeks when he smiles. And even though the moment had been full of terror and sadness, she thinks about their— _her—_ first kiss and the kind of life and passion it'd sparked her that she didn't know she was capable of feeling after life in the dark for so long.

Wind curls around her hands, greets her like an old friend as it kisses her cheeks.

When she opens her eyes the sail is full, snapping at the edges as it jerks and sways. Energy inches through her to compile in her wrists as she flicks them to continue the wind.

Airbending always felt so different from the rest. She could always use sheer willpower and force to bend the other elements. It wasn't that she physically excelled far above what was expected of her; Kei was simply stubborn and tenacious and her determination drove her to work and work until finally whatever it was surrendered to her will. She'd done it with earth and water and she'd even done it with fire, patiently waiting until it surfaced and she ripped it out of its hiding place.

With air, she couldn't force something that barely existed in their plane. It was slippery and evasive and sometimes it listened to her commands and others it didn't.

But with Mela next to her, adjusting her elbows and guiding her breath much like Rina did, she was sure she'd master it just like the rest.

She'd need it and every drop of resolve left in her tank if she was going to stop Sozin from burning her home.

**II.**

Uncle Bo meanders through the swamp, humming a careless tune as he stomps through mud and moss. His catgator has gone missing _again_ and no one in the damn village is willing to look for her with him.

He's tried searching for her through the vines but Lily—named endearingly after the flower who is likely ten times more dangerous than the lazy pet—is a quick beast of an animal. Everytime he gets an inkling of where she's gone, she vanishes as quick as a rabbit hound.

"Yer not gettin' any supper from me tonight, Lily," he calls out, stepping over a large root and pulling back a vine with one large meaty hand. "Better get somethin' while yer out here 'cause you're sleeping outside tonight!"

Uncle Bo pauses, thinks about that for a moment. Even scratches his head. Perhaps that's what Lily wanted—to sleep outside—so she could slither back off into the swamp again, thus forcing him to waste yet another day scouring the swamp. He lets out an exasperated noise, pinches the bridge of his nose, and grumbles something along the lines of ' _If I didn't love that damn animal so much…'_

He continues sloshing his way through knee deep water, bending vines apart when they grow too thick to simply plunder through.

The sun sinks slowly and what little light filters through to the undergrowth quickly begins to fade. With a tired sigh, Uncle Bo resigns to the fact that Lily will return when Lily finally forgives him for forgetting to set her aside an extra fish at dinner the night before. He starts on his way back to the village.

Up ahead, Uncle Bo can hear rustling in the trees and his heart picks up. Maybe Lily had gotten caught up in the vines. She'd been known to do that a time or two and his niece Kei had cut her down on more than one occasion when she'd still taken up residence in the swamp.

_Huh. His own niece—the Avatar. Who would've thought?_

The rustling and snapping grows louder and Uncle Bo moves faster through the swamp.

"Hold yer ostrich horses, Lily, I'm coming—"

He breaks through the trees into a small, flooded clearing.

A squadron of men in black and red armor turn their attention to him. Their helmets are terrifying with two small holes for eyes and a row of vertical slits for their mouths.

His eyes latch to an insignia on one of the men's breastplate. _Fire Nation._

Uncle Bo reaches for the water all around him, feels the energy of the swamp course through his body.

He's a fierce bender, even considered a warrior of sorts in his tribe, but one man can only fight so hard before he falls.

**III.**

When home rises up out of the ocean, her hands grip the edge of the ship so tightly they go white. Mela still stands on the upper deck, blowing a gale storm into the sails.

Kei turns heel and disappears below deck. She gathers a rucksack and fills it with a few odds and ends (waterskins, a bow and quiver, and even a small knife) before quickly plaiting her hair into a single, traditional tribal braid to keep it out of the way during combat.

With her things gathered, she goes back up deck and climbs the side of the boat, bare feet balancing on a thin line of wood.

"Kei, what are you doing?" calls Mela.

She ignores her airbending master and rolls her shoulders, leaning forward. Water rushes past the boat, a bright turquoise blue.

"Get down, Kei! We won't be able to help if you go now." It's Bumi this time.

She shakes her head and dips down, arms folded as she dives into the water. It rises to meet her, sucking her in and propelling her forward at an inhuman speed.

It's easy to bend the water around her to move herself forward. She bends an air bubble around her head so she can reach land without surfacing for air.

Not soon enough, her toes squish into the soft mud of the shore. _Home. I am Home._ Her head rises slowly above the water, eyes level with the surface.

The swamp greets her, tall banyan trees guarding the wilds within. She spots a few birds sitting on branches but they're still and their song is silent. It's quiet, too quiet, and unease flares in her gut.

Prey is only silent like that when a predator is near. The swamp is never, ever silent.

The Fire Nation is here.

Kei crawls out of the water, close to the ground in case foot soldiers are still close to the shore. She scoops mud up with her hands to smear it over herself for camouflage. She coats her arms and legs and even streaks it across her cheeks and eyes, just like her papa told her to when he taught her to hunt without her bending.

It's been a long time since she's been home but she knows this swamp like she knows her own face. She could traverse it in the pitch black night with nothing but her memory to go off of. The Fire Nation is walking in blind, searching for a fierce tribe that's never been discovered.

Kei prays it's enough.

Her bow and quiver sit tight against her back and her clothes stick to her body. Heat dries them mostly but humidity keeps them damp.

When she enters the thick copse of trees, she immediately makes her way upward. Vines answer her call, easily tugging her up and out of sight. She'll be able to move faster without detection this way—and it gives her a better vantage point for a soldier's throat with her bow.

Memories of hunting hog monkeys and practicing precision on screeching birds return to her as her bow presses against her chest. Every child in the village learns to shoot a bow even if they're a bender. It's mostly for hunting's sake as killing a boar-q-pine with waterbending alone has proven to be vastly more difficult and dangerous than it's worth.

Kei swings between branches and perches on them, peeking down as she moves towards the center of the swamp. All the animals are hidden and the energy she remembers coursing through every vine or branch is gone. Her throat tightens.

"We've been marching through this damn swamp all day with nothing to show for it," a voice hisses from down below and Kei freezes, pressing her back against the trunk.

She looks down her shoulder and sees three Fire Nation soldiers noisily marching through the undergrowth. They're dressed in a lighter version of their usual black and red armor sans a helmet. She reaches for her bow, eyes narrowing in on the soldier at the back.

"Commander says we've got to round up any backwoods that might've wandered off."

A chuckle. "There's no fucking way any of them got away after we burned that shithole to the ground. _Commander_ is paranoid."

Knocking back an arrow, she holds a breath and the string brushes her cheek. Rage curls around her heart and squeezes like a boa constrictor. She aims. She shoots.

He drops with a thud, clawing at his neck as blood pours from the wound. An arrow is lodged in his throat, right through his trachea.

The two remaining soldiers start, fire blooming in their palms as they search for the perpetrator. Fear is clear in their eyes. Kei knocks back another arrow and aims again. This arrow flies through a soldier's eye and he drops like lead.

By this time, the remaining soldier has found her perch and she slings her bow over her back just in time to dodge a fireball. She tumbles from the tree, landing in a crouch and rolls as he yells and attacks again.

Kei digs her hand into the ground, elbow deep in murky water, and jerks one arm forward. Vines lash out and grab the soldier around the wrist, binding him from another volley of fire attacks. He yells, kicks a leg out, and a short stream of orange fire follows.

She reaches for another vine, lets this one twist around his throat. Righteousness tightens her mouth and narrows her eyes. The warden's face flashes behind her eyelids and she wants nothing more than to let this man hang here and die.

But then she looks at his two companions, two lives she's already claimed without hesitation, and she lets his unconscious body go. He sinks against a tree, purple lacing his throat.

An ugly thing grows in her, yawns and wakens from a deep slumber.

Kei swallows and leaves the men behind.

She doesn't have time to consider what killing a man for the first time means.

**IV.**

Smoke, sweet and thick, floods her senses.

As she runs through the swamp, ducking and dodging and bending, she sings over and over in her mind:

_Please be safe please be safe please be safe pleasepleaseplease–_

But when that smoke finds her, taunts her, she knows. She knows, she knows, _she knows_.

Her heart hammers, a _thud-thud, thud-thud_ in her chest. Wind weaves through the trees, following her as she runs, howling like a pack of wolves. The earth rumbles.

_Please please be okay Mama, please be okay Papa for the love of all that is good and bright and holy please be okay–_

She breaks through the trees.

The huts are all piles of smouldering ash, smoke still rising from their remains. There are bodies _everywhere she looks._ Both her people and invaders lie in dark pools of blood. There's a line of bodies lying face down, surrounded by a sea of red. They'd been slaughtered, execution style, carotids slit. The smell of burnt flesh fills her nose and that thing that had yawned awake in her begins to snarl and shake.

Kei falls to her knees as she chokes on her grief. Her body hums and shakes and she feels like she's being swallowed by the world, growing smaller and smaller until she twists into herself and disappears. She's shrinking and the beast inside her grows.

There are still Fire Nation soldiers here and they've begun circling in on her, posed to fight. They think she's just another villager and they spit toward her venomously.

In the center of the village is a pyre. The body is charred, blackened, burned beyond recognition, but there's a catgator strung up next to it. A soldier keeps poking it, laughing as it twitches in the aftershocks of death.

She shouldn't be able to say for sure but— _she knows she knows she knows._

_Uncle Bo. It's Uncle Bo._

The beast in her snaps, latches onto her soul with an unbreakable bite. It's teeth are iron and they click and groan as they sink into her, filling her with a pain so bright that it fills her entire being. She grips her head and bows, forehead hitting damp ground.

"Hands on the ground, you savage piece of shit!"

The ground shakes and wind surges through the still swamp.

Light floods her vision.

A scream bubbles in her throat.

The world explodes.

**V.**

It takes the rest of the boat's crew somewhere near two hours to reach shore.

Bumi can't stop bouncing his leg and Himiko begins to follow Kei's example and bends the water around the boat.

She'd wanted to leave them behind and follow the Avatar herself but memories of her tongue being cut out holds her back. They'll need all of them—four masters in their own right—to stop the Fire Nation. There's a renewed sense of urgency in them now as they struggle to reach Kei.

Mela is awfully quiet. Bumi can tell she's thinking about her own home, which was reduced to a crumbling relic from another time. Her concern for Kei is a tangible thing that breathes life into all of their efforts, doubling them as the swamp inches toward them. She even helps Himiko, too, and keeps bending the wind to push them forward despite the obvious exhaustion on her face.

Takashi steers the ship, his sturdy _katana_ swinging at his side. He's been quiet, too, but Bumi knows it's more out of irritation than concern. He'd wanted to follow direct orders and take Kei straight to Ba Sing Se for protection while they figured out how to handle the Fire Lord. He's never liked the swordmaster but the White Lotus sent him and he's a damn good fighter. So long as his opinions don't harm Kei, Bumi will let his attitude slide.

Nearly an hour after Kei dives off the boat, a strong shockwave of air blows out of the swamp and thousands of birds take flight. The sky grows dark for a moment, then lightens as they pass through the sun.

Bumi squints his eyes, watches as the trees bow from a central source of power. They snap back into place, look like nothing happened. But there's a charge in the air, like the fizz of electricity before a thunderstorm.

He lets loose a breath. Himiko's ocean eyes swing toward him and the two old friends share a silent understanding. Fear and sadness split his heart in equal measure.

There's only one bender in the world with the capability to create an explosion like that.

_Is she okay?_

They follow the path of destruction. Men are tied up by vines, eyes swollen and bloodshot with blood leaking from their ears. They pass the village and see Kei's home in cinders. There are corpses everywhere and Bumi wonders if Kei's parents are among them. He remembers them well. They'd loved their daughter unconditionally, irrevocably. His heart twists. There's an untouched doll on the ground, sticks and cotton bound together by twine; Bumi picks it up and pockets it.

Finally, the carnage leads them to the great banyan-grove tree that the natives worshipped.

Kei sits at the base.

Her arms are wrapped around her knees, her head lowered. Scorch marks mar the tree behind her and the first level of branches are black and curled. A ring of Fire Nation soldiers surrounds her, but they're face down in deep mud. Their chests do not rise or fall.

Bumi approaches her cautiously. His three companions stay behind and carefully watch. Though none of them will say it, they're all afraid that one wrong move will set her off again. The Avatar State is a precarious thing, easily triggered by emotions of this depth, and there's nothing else that could've wrought this kind of carnage.

He crouches in front of his student, seeking her eyes out.

There's a slight tremor to her shoulders. It grows until he sees that she's heaving with sobs that steal the air from her lungs.

_That's it._

Bumi scoops her up into a hug, sinking into the ground, placing her in his lap. His strokes her hair as she wails, desperately trying to comfort her. But there's no comforting someone who's lost everything in seconds.

He meets Mela's gaze over Kei's shoulder. Her eyes are watery and focused wholly on the young Avatar. She knows better than anyone else what Kei's going through.

Bumi hopes she'll be able to help Kei heal because the girl he's holding to his chest—she's not the same girl who bound him to a tree four years ago.

Carefully, he picks up her with his arms locked under her legs and back and carries her back to the ship the way a parent would their child. He makes sure to block her eyes when they pass the village—not that he really needs to; her eyes are screwed shut as she continues sobbing—and presses her head against his chest so she can't hear leftover flames crackling, only the steady thump of his heart.

**VI.**

They sail north along the coast until they reach a river that will take them inland towards Ba Sing Se.

Kei locks herself in her cabin, the same one she awoke in.

Mela and Himiko bring her food and leave it outside the barricaded door but it's been untouched for days now.

Bumi wants to break the door down but Mela warns him against it.

"She needs time to process what's happened. Give it another few days before you force your way in."

Bumi frowns. "She needs food and water."

"The water is always gone when we retrieve the food. A week without food will harm her less than forcing our way to her right now."

The earthbender tries again but Mela raises a stern hand. Despite being his junior, she commands him with an authority that reminds him of his mother and stops him in his tracks.

If he weren't so concerned for Kei, he'd laugh heartily at himself for this.

"We all process differently. I can sense Kei's spiritual energy and she just needs time. Trust me on this, Bumi."

**VII.**

"I don't understand why this is happening to me. What have I done to deserve this? I feel like… I can't do anything right. Everyone I come into contact with suffers."

Aang sits before her. His hands lay idly in his lap and his face shows nothing but concern for his predecessor.

She looks awful and she knows it. She cleaned herself after the battle in the swamp, scrubbing away the filth until her skin was red and raw, but she still feels dirty. Her eyes are red and her hands shake even when they lay still by her sides. Purple moons claim the space under her eyes and her lips and nails are bloody from chewing on them. Whatever weight she'd managed to gain during the journey from the Boiling Rock to the Foggy Swamp is long gone. Her grief has become a corporeal being that feeds off her soul.

"Sometimes, there are no reasons for the things that happen to us," Aang says slowly. "Sometimes, bad things happen to us just because."

"How am I supposed to overcome this?" She sucks in a wobbly breath and wipes at her face with the back of her hand. "How am I supposed to live with knowing that I am the reason all these people have died?"

"I understand—"

"I don't think you do! Jiro is dead because of me. My entire tribe, my whole family, is dead because of me. Himiko's tongue was cut out _because of me._ I killed hundreds of men when I entered the Avatar State. And even though they were there to hurt my family, I can't help but wonder how many of them were like Jiro's brother. How many of them had families who will rightfully blame me for destroying their lives?"

Aang sighs. She knows he wants to say more and she knows she's being difficult but she's struggling so hard to justify and rationalize the whys and hows of her situation. Kei's grasping at straws, grasping at her sanity as it slips further and further away.

"When I had to choose between living and dying, I didn't understand why it happened to me either, Kei. It wasn't fair that I was twelve years old and my only crime was being born. Sozin didn't have a good reason. No explanation can ever or will ever justify what's happened to us." The airbender looks at Kei, who's dissolved into silent tears, and frowns. "You need rest. Sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."

**VIII.**

"It's all your fault!" she screams. Her palms slaps the floor and the sting keeps her grounded in this reality.

The dragon-beard man watches her steadily. He's translucent, far less tangible than he'd been during her adolescence.

Kei points an accusatory finger that trembled with rage. Her teeth grind against each other and her jaw pops. "If you had just _done your job_ , everyone would be okay. The airbenders would be alive. Aang would be alive. _My family would still be here._ "

Roku remains silent.

"Why are you even here, Roku? You abandoned me in the prison. You left me to rot like I meant nothing. Do you even feel guilty about what your actions have done? The mess _I_ have been left to deal with?"

Silence.

" _Answer me!"_

"Are you finished?"

Kei breaths harshly through her nose like an angry sabre-tooth moose lion. She nods her head once.

"You needed to learn what it was like to truly be alone. You needed to understand what it means to be the Avatar. It's no easy task, Kei. You alone are the bridge between worlds. You _alone_ can bring balance back to the world. Aang and I are long gone. Our time has passed and if it weren't for your connection to the banyan-grove tree you would've grown up without us as your constant companions like every other Avatar before you. Most Avatars only ever have access to us when they meditate and call upon us. Had we stayed with you the entire time, it would've blinded you to the lesson you needed to learn there."

She turns her head, looking down to avoid looking directly at him. Instead she looks at the furniture she's broken in her rage and the ripped sheets and blankets. Fury races through her but it has outlet so it fizzles out like a trapped flame. "Which was?"

"You carried yourself through one of the worst things a person can endure— _alone_. You survived the beatings and the torture. You stopped them from raping you even when you should have been helpless. You healed your wounds even when you were bound and exhausted. And even when you'd been held at the merciless of Fire Nation soldiers for months, _you_ who had the capacity to see past their brutality and love one of them. Not Aang. Not me. Not any of us. _You_."

"Aang was there. He helped me survive."

Roku shakes his head. "He gave you access to our knowledge, our memories. It was always you. The Avatar travels a lonely path. We take on what is unbearable and we endure it. Not because we are stronger or better than anyone else. But because we must.

"What happened to your tribe happened to millions of airbenders. It happened to Aang. It happened to Mela. Accept what happened to you and use it to focus on what needs to be done. Understand that you alone can bring balance. Understand that being the Avatar means sacrifices that most would be incapable of making."

**IX.**

"We've never spoken before but my name is Kei."

Kyoshi smiles, amused. Her red, white, and black paint is vivid even in her spiritual form. "I know who you are. Raava connects us."

She frowns. "Oh. Well, I've spoken to Aang and Roku already. But I was just hoping that maybe you could give me perspective."

As a young girl, long before she even knew she was the Avatar, she'd learned more about Avatar Kyoshi than any of the other incarnations. She'd suffered great losses as a girl that should have broken anyone. She'd been abandoned and used, mocked and betrayed. She'd had everything taken from her just like Kei had. And yet she went on to liberate their nation from Chin the Conqueror and reigned over two-hundred and thirty years of world peace, which was more than she could say for herself or her two predecessors. If anyone could teach her how to be strong and defeat an evil man, it'd be her.

"I'll provide what I can."

Kei looked at her fisted hands sitting in the lap of her crossed legs. The cuticles were still red but were in better shape than they had been when she talked to Aang a few days ago.

"Aang and Roku have both advised acceptance. In order to do my duty as the Avatar, I have to accept that my family is dead and move on. And I don't think I'm ready for that. I don't think I'm capable of it. I can't even leave this room without breaking down into tears. But I can't stay here forever and lick my wounds. I know that. People need me. The _world_ needs me. But how do I put myself back together? How do I live with this?"

The painted woman hums in understanding and it occurs to Kei that an Avatar so widely known for her ferocity and iron will should be less… comforting. Here with Kyoshi, Kei doesn't feel like the other woman pitied her like Aang did or patronized her like Roku. Kyoshi simply is.

"The Air Nomads teach a philosophy revolving around core values of inner peace and acceptance. Aang was a boy when he passed into the Spirit World. He hadn't yet learned that the Avatar can never be at peace nor can we be at balance. It is our job to maintain this world's balance and many of us have sacrificed our own bodies and minds to fulfill this purpose. Roku was a stubborn man. He let his feelings for Sozin stop him from doing what needed to be done. He maintained the balance in his heart and in doing so he damned the airbenders.

"You do not need balance inside yourself to be the Avatar, Kei. You don't need to accept what Sozin has done to your people. You're angry? You're in pain? _Use it._ Draw from it. Let it fuel your focus. Don't find acceptance. Find closure. Force the Fire Lord to face what his actions have wrought. You are a force of nature, the spirit of the world in a mortal body. Only justice will bring the peace you seek."

**X.**

On the eighth day, she leaves her cabin.

Kei bends down and picks up the plate of food left by her door. The rice is still warm and she eats it with her hands as she walks down the hallway. She follows the sound of two low voices arguing until she finds the mess hall again.

Bumi, Mela, and Himiko all sit at the dining table. Empty plates of food sit in front of them. They don't notice her in the doorway.

"We need a plan," says Bumi. "With Sozin dead, his son is only going to escalate the war. I have a feeling this attack was Azulon's doing and not his father's."

Kei takes another step into the room.

"Sozin is dead?" she whispers.

All heads swing to face her. Bumi scoots his chair back, begins to stand, but Mela lays one hand over his and seats him again with a scathing glance.

Everyone hesitates to answer her. She frowns, doesn't like it, but she understands. She knows she looks like a ghost, a whisper of a human being that they're afraid they'll blow away with the mere scent of conflict.

"Well?"

"Takashi received a messenger hawk. Sozin died a few days after you left the Boiling Rock. He died in his sleep."

Kei swallows and approaches further. She pulls out an empty seat. Her brain feels like its full of cotton. The news that Sozin, the man she'd been fixated on defeating for over a third of her life, is... rather anti-climatic. The news that he's dead should rattle her. But it doesn't. There's not even the slightest tremor in her heart.

Only icy cold determination. And perhaps a tinge of bitterness that she hadn't been the one to cruelly inflict a long and torturous death.

"What is the Fire Nation doing now?" she asks.

"Azulon is preparing for his coronation ceremony. After the attack on… your tribe, there haven't been any messages intercepted that suggest he's planning anything drastic now."

Kei snorts. "Unlikely. I heard enough about him in the Boiling Rock to know that he's not going to sit by idly, especially with his father gone. If he already had enough troops in the Earth Kingdom to attack my tribe as quickly as he did, I suspect he's planning another campaign. The regiment I eliminated was likely just the tip of the iceberg."

No one disagrees with her.

"Where's Takashi?"

"Steering the ship," Bumi says. "Why?"

"How far away are we from Serpent's Pass?"

"About a day or so."

"Good. We're not going to go any further. I have no purpose in Ba Sing Se."

Kei stands and pushes her chair back in. She moves to leave, and then pauses. "Himiko, do we have any white paint?"

The waterbender nods, albeit confused, and leaves the room for a moment. When she returns, she places a small jar in Kei's hand.

Mela makes a noise, a small indignant cry. "What's in Serpent's Pass?" she asks.

Himiko arches an eyebrow and places her forehead in her palm.

Bumi sighs and leans back. "A pesky reptile, that's what."

**XI.**

Kei climbs over slippery rocks covered with salt and moss. Himiko accompanies her while the rest of her team waits on the boat.

Below them, a lake shimmers in the bright spring sun. The water is still but Kei knows something lurks under its surface. It's why she's here.

"Wait here," she tells her waterbending master once they've reached a pathway down toward the lake. Himiko crosses her arms and although she can't speak her message is easily understood. "I'll be fine." Kei points. "I'll be right down there. Within eyesight. I just don't know how agreeable he's going to be, you know. I know he won't hurt me, but I can't say anything about you."

Himiko grunts but sits down on the surface of a large boulder anyway. Her Water Tribe clothes look impossibly warm and make Kei glad she's returned to wearing the simple cloth and leather wrappings she wore back home if only to gain some reprieve from the heat. (It's also a reminder of what's she's lost and why she's fighting.)

She slides as she makes the last few steps to the shore. Little pebbles all shapes and sizes and colors line the bank. Kei dips to pick up a flat, pink one and flicks it into the water. It skips across the surface a few times before disappearing forever.

 _Where are you?_ she wonders.

Kei closes her eyes and seeks out the thin tether in the back of her mind. It's always been there but while it'd once been thick and strong, it was now frayed and weak from neglect. She reaches for the connection and when she touches it, a shiver runs up her spine.

A small smile, not one of happiness but of knowingness, crosses her face.

She brings her thumb and pointer finger to her lips and whistles one long, loud note that rings through the pass.

It's peaceful for a moment. Blue skies and clear water and a soft breeze.

Then it's there, water rushing under water, pushing and shoving past each other as something _other_ barrels toward the surface. She feels it and she bets Himiko can feel it, too.

A monstrous head breaks the mirror surface of the lake. Indigo scales glint like obsidian blades under light and its black whiskers whip back and forth as it lets out a thunderous screech. Its head is flanked by two fan like fins that are a shade of lavender and two gem eyes stare straight into her.

The serpent calms, lowers its head until it's feet away from her.

Kei reaches out her hand.

"I told you I'd come back for you, Ryuu."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just start ignoring me when i say, "okay! this is it! only one more chapter to go until this avatar is done!" because I am a liar. i admit. this is not the final piece. hopefully this is a good thing? everything just ends up so much longer than i thought it would be when i sit down to actually write it. and when I edit it, i can't seem to find any pieces that i think are filler and take away from the theme i'm trying to convey through kei. with that said, enjoy this. it's sad. but we get somewhere (kind of) better in the conclusion. WHICH I SWEAR TO GOD will be the next chapter. i don't care if it's rushed. next chapter is the final piece of her arc. also i posted this once before, but i removed it because the rise of kyoshi was released and i wanted to add a few canon details to a certain portion. by the way, has anyone else read it? i thought it was fantastic.
> 
> ———
> 
> NEXT: 4 | the blue dragon


	6. 4 | the blue dragon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> music i recommend listening to while reading this finale:
> 
> \- Paint It, Black by Ciara  
> \- Funeral March by 2WEI  
> \- See What I've Become by Zack Hemsey  
> \- Bring Me Back to Life by Ht Bristol, Charlie Bannister, Vincent Steele, and Nine One One  
> \- Un Nouveau Soleil by M83
> 
> enjoy.

**CHAPTER FOUR  
 _the blue dragon_**

**I.**

Ryuu looks like a solar eclipse with the noon sun at his back, a blot of fearsome darkness ready to attack at his master's command. The sea serpent hovers over the boat, close enough that Mela can feel the disturbance his whiskers make in the air as they twitch. His forked tongue flicks out every so often, tasting the air, as his thin eyes flit from person to person, searching for potential threats.

"Well, he's certainly gone through a growth spurt," Bumi mumbles. The earthbender strokes the making of a beard and watches Ryuu with more curiosity than fear. Mela thinks he's insane. She's terrified of the sea serpent—definitely _not_ curious.

Kei shrugs her slight shoulders. Her body is angled toward her guide, seeking the reassurance and protection he provides her. This is the most relaxed Mela's seen her since she met the girl.

_Not relaxed. Something else. Self-assured, maybe. Or resigned._

"I never really thought about how big he'd be when he was fully grown. For as long as I can remember, he was just big enough to carry across my shoulders." Kei bites her thumbnail. "I think being allowed to swim freely over the last year gave him the chance to grow. He was on dry land and really sick when I first found him as a kid. That must've slowed or stunted him until I returned him to deeper waters."

Bumi snorts. "Well, there's nothing stunted about him now."

As if in agreement, Ryuu hisses and flicks his tail out of the water before he slams it back down. It cracks like a whip against air. The boat rocks as waves ripple through the otherwise calm waters. Mela tries not to wince and run for her glider.

Takashi stands next to her and scowls at Ryuu with distaste. Of course, there's the possibility that he's simply observing the snake because the man constantly looks like he's just been impaled with his own blade.

"He's not going to be able to come with us to Ba Sing Se." Takashi crosses his arms. "He's too big."

Kei narrows those stone-like eyes into slits. She looks like her pet snake. The Avatar and Takashi hadn't gotten along since… well, since they'd first met. The man was order and discipline born into a human body and Kei was a force of nature who laughed away his attempts at control like he was an annoying fruit fly.

"I told you. We're not going to Ba Sing Se. I have no purpose there."

Takashi's upper lip curls. "You need recovery. _Guidance_. Time to master airbending and the Avatar State. You're hardly more than a child. You don't know what your purpose is."

"Sozin is dead. Azulon has more than likely been crowned Fire Lord at this point and he's planning something in the Earth Kingdom. I don't have time for that. Mela can train me as we go and I've already entered the Avatar State once. I'm pretty sure I can access if I need to."

"Access is one thing. _Control_ is another," the swordmaster hisses.

Kei's three bending teachers do not intervene in the conflict. They stand back and watch as, once again, the man tries to tame the hurricane of a girl. It's an impossible task that Takashi never accomplishes but repeatedly attempts anyway. Mela can feel Kei's timeless soul crackling, her spiritual presence growing as she angers. Bumi's mouth is quirked and Himiko seems unphased. The aggression makes Mela nervous.

"If you don't want to come with us, by all means, _leave_. Go to Ba Sing Se where you can hide behind its walls in your fancy house and allow your servants to cater to your every need. Grow old and soft and fat while the world starves and suffers. I, however, cannot and _will not_ be coddled while Azulon is still in power. I have a duty to the world that comes before any of my own personal needs or wants. Anyone with a semblance of _honor_ would know that."

It's a low blow to deliver upon a man who'd lived in the Fire Nation his entire life until the Air Nomad genocide. While he'd branched from his country in political ideas and moral codes, his cultural roots obviously still ran deep. A muscle in Takashi's jaw ticks and his fingers twitch for his blade. If they were in the Fire Nation, the Avatar's words would've been grounds for a duel. There's a moment of tension where Kei dares him—to speak out at her again, to question her choice one more time, to unsheathe his _katana_ and attack.

But Takashi relaxes, simply nods once, a quick downward pull of his chin that Mela almost misses. The swordmaster submits and his posture deflates.

"Good," Kei says and turns to her airbending teacher. "Now tell me what you know about the bending prisons."

**II.**

"Here, here, and here." Mela enunciates each word with her pointer finger on a map, circling areas on the paper with the brush in her free hand. "Earthbenders were taken on metal barges to the western side of the archipelago where they're completely cut off from bending material. Waterbenders are kept on an island near the center where it's hotter and drier in facilities that are designed to nullify their bending. I've never seen the water prisons in person but we got the information from an intercepted messenger hawk a couple months before we were caught, too."

"And the remaining airbenders? I know he's kept a few instead of killing them outright. Where are they?" asks Kei, intently watching her tutor as she lays out where the Fire Nation has hidden away pieces of the world.

"I don't entirely know. We figured somewhere underground to help offset their own bending but none of the unpopulated islands are high enough at sea level to accommodate a prison like that. And the colonies are too unstable and new to keep prisoners of that value there. I thought they'd be at the Boiling Rock but your companion said there were none when I asked during our correspondence."

Kei sighs and bites the inside of her lip. Jiro crosses her mind again, which is hardly a surprise. The man she loves dominates her thoughts most days, having taken up a place right next to the memories of her family and tribe. She'd only known him in the prison and while they'd shared every bit of information about one another, she now wondered if he'd be different here on the ship where he didn't have to worry about the warden or other guards. What would he think of her plans? How would he change them? Would the hope bleed from his eyes when she told him she wasn't even strong enough to save her own tribe?

"There's a series of tunnels under the Fire Nation capital," a voice says suddenly, a piece of clarity in the dark. It snaps Kei from her black hole of a mind and reminds her to stay focused on the now. She raises an eyebrow when she sees who it is. Takashi, though unhappy-looking as ever, strides into the mess hall, which has been turned into a mock war room. "It was built as a safety bunker for the Royal Family in the event of a siege. There's plenty of space to turn it into a prison and it's close enough for the Fire Lord to keep a close eye on it. If I were going to imprison a large group of airbenders, it's where I would keep them."

Kei hums and smiles gratefully at the final member of her team. Then she studies the map a little more, considering it.

"I think you're right."

The Avatar gestures for Mela to hand her the brush and she does. Kei dips it in the black ink again and pauses before she draws a line from their location to the group of markings near the earth prisons and then connects it to the water prisons.

"We need numbers if we're going to free the airbenders. We're all skilled but five masters and a sea serpent still isn't enough to lay waste to the capital. I say I free the earthbenders using Ryuu and some juiced up waterbending and then with the numbers we gain from that we free the waterbenders as a collective group. We give them a choice to follow us to the capital and take a month to prepare for those who stay with us. Build ships, provide combat training, whatever is needed. Then on the next full moon, we attack."

"What makes you think the benders will follow us?" Takashi asks. It's a simple enough inquiry but Mela's surprise doubles when she finds zero contempt in it. Takashi seems to have forgone his original goals with the White Lotus and exchanged them for loyalty to Kei.

"They've been taken from their homes. Beaten. Starved. Tortured. I've been in their position. It's hard to imagine rebelling if you're alone but when someone gives you the hope you need, it's easy to find the strength to fight back. Some will choose to go home, yes, but I think most will realize that their safety will always be temporary with Sozin's bloodline on the throne."

"And you'll lead them?"

Kei nods, her hands braced on the table. "Yes."

"And what of your strength? You may not be going to Ba Sing Se to recover but you have to admit that you are in no shape to take Azulon and his armies head on. Something needs to change."

Mela clears her throat. "If I may, Takashi—there's a technique airbenders used to restore strength when nomads return from a long fast. My sisters and I often performed it on one another while traveling when we had to go weeks without food. We only used it as a last resort since it's a painful process but I think with a mixture of it and Himiko's healing abilities, we should be able to get Kei back to a starting point to rebuild muscle mass and endurance."

Takashi's forehead wrinkles, mouth parted in a protest. "You didn't learn it from a master? How confident are you in such a high-level bending technique?"

Biting her lip, Mela considers it. "I didn't learn it from an experienced master. But I've used it enough to know what I'm doing. I've been on the receiving end more than once. She won't be in any danger. I can't say the same for pain."

"Then let's do it. When can we start?"

Mela sighs. "Tomorrow. We'll need our rest."

**III.**

Kei's heart flutters in her chest. She's laying on her back, her arms and legs strapped down with leather. There's a thick piece of it shoved in between her teeth, too, for good measure. No need to add cracked teeth to her list of ailments if it can be avoided.

Bumi is holding her hand to her right while Mela and Himiko hover over her. Kei feels dizzy as she watches her reflection waver in their eyes. She'd endured plenty of pain in the prison but it was a different kind. It'd never gone deeper than the surface. Mela would be reaching inside her, chasing away the death and decay, pushing vitality into her muscles.

"Are you ready?" asks Mela in that soft voice of hers that still reaches every corner of the room.

Kei jerks her head down once. Her fingers curl around Bumi's hand and she squeezes until her knuckles are stiff.

Mela breathes deeply, finds a source of balance in herself, before she begins. Her arms move smoothly in circles and arcs that bleed into one another. It's a push and pull that reminds Kei of the northern healing techniques. A slight breeze picks up in the room before it runs up and over Kei's form and disappears in her mouth.

For a moment Kei thinks that Mela was mistaken. While she feels a hum beginning to build in her body, it's not entirely unpleasant. In fact, she could fall asleep soundly to the sudden warmth flooding her body. _She's been so cold for so long…._

And then it hits. Her body convulses, pulling against the leather straps as Mela begins to draw the death out of her body. Her jaw locks down on the leather strap. Vaguely, she hears Bumi swear as she crushes his hand to dust.

It's not like anything else she'd experienced. Not like the whipping, which she easily grew numb to. Not like the water-boarding, which had centralized in her chest and left the rest of her floating in the void. It was like she was growing, the way a child does through its younger adolescent years, but it was all being shoved into seconds, minutes of development. Every muscle curled and shriveled only to spring back to life and repeat the process of being broken down and reborn again.

There's a hand on her forehead brushing away hair as tears form in her eyes. A scream has been caught in her throat, stopped by the leather she bites down on, and a long shudder runs through her. She sees Himiko and her worried frown above her. Words are being spoken but she can't focus long enough to decipher what they are.

Kei's eyes sinch shut. In her own darkness, she can see a faint blue glow and then the fire dancing along every nerve is cooled like it's been doused in icy water from the South Sea.

She can feel her head lull to the side, heavy like a bag of rocks. Still feels her hand in Bumi's, feels the weight of another on her forehead.

Exhaustion grips her tightly and pulls her under before she can even let out the softest of protests.

**IV.**

Kei remains unconscious for the better part of four days while Mela and Himiko take turns correcting the injuries piled on top of each other over the last year. Aside from pulling muscles from the brink of atrophy, there's cracked bones and nerve damage that need tending to as well. Plenty of damage in the tissue of her lungs, too, and there are fine shards of bone that float around in the flesh of her wrists and ankles, no doubt a result of her being strung up.

How she'd done what she did at the Foggy Swamp is a miracle—that, or a testament to the power of desperation and rage.

Together, they heal everything they can. Himiko knows Kei isn't in the same condition she'd been in when they left Hira'a but it's legions beyond what she'd been when they dragged her onto their boat after the Boiling Rock.

(It's so hard to think of the girl she'd mothered only a short time ago. That girl had been kind and tenacious and if she wasn't talking, she was laughing. Always laughing. She'd found such joy in life's simple pleasures. Now she's quiet. Ghostly. There's nothing lively about her except for that dark spark of rage in her eyes.)

Himiko brushes hair from the young girl's forehead and leaves a kiss there. She'd never been able to have children of her own—being a combat-trained waterbender in the northern tribe hadn't exactly opened up many marriage opportunities—but this girl was what she imagined her children would have been like if she'd had them. 

Kei's heart is too big for her body. This, Himiko knows. Too big for a girl who's destined to restore order to an evil and cruel world, no matter the cost.

As she clutches the girl's hand, watching as nightmares chase her in her sleep, Himiko only hopes that beautiful heart won't get her in trouble.

The heart is the weakest point in the body. Always.

**V.**

"How are you feeling?"

Kei flexes her fingers, drawing each one to their full length before curling them inward. She makes a fist, squeezes as hard as she can until her knuckles are pink and white. The realization that she can even clench her fist dawns on her like a sunrise full of color—reds, oranges, yellows, not at all soft and entirely the shade of war.

She finds that she feels satisfied, though not for the right reasons. She's not happy she can move again because it's one step closer to recovery. No, she's happy because it means she's that much closer to watching the life drain from Azulon's eyes. One step closer to taking the justice she is owed for the death of her tribe and the cruel torture she'd endured. _And for taking Jiro from me when I needed him the most._

"Better," she murmurs, glancing up to meet her airbending master's inquisitive stare. Kei takes catalog of the muscles in her body that she'd forgotten were there. They're sore, but she feels like she now has a control and strength over her own body that had been lost since she was chained. "I… haven't felt like this in a long time. I didn't realize how weak I'd been until my strength was restored."

Mela chuckles and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "I wouldn't go as far to say that you're back in tip-top shape, but you're looking much better. Bumi's going to fix what we couldn't with what I imagine he'll call tough love."

The Avatar cracks a half-hearted smile. "I can't wait."

**VI.**

Mela was right. Bumi does douse her in his fair share of tough love, even laughs while she's buried elbow deep in rubble and rock dust. When they dock for supplies near Mount Makkapu and the Wulong Forest, he corrects forgotten technique and rebuilds her stamina. At first he only lets her earthbend but eventually they work up to spars that employ all the elements. (This part reminds her most of her old self. She'd never been able to separate earth from water from air as a girl and slipping in mud that's neither this nor that sparks a small ember of nostalgia in her.)

Himiko and Mela were able to clear the rot out of her body, but that didn't mean they could entirely restore who she'd been before the Boiling Rock. She was still weak, a little unstable on her feet and unsure of her instincts, but Bumi was determined to beat it out of her.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were my grandma," he sings, cackling as he slides into another stance that sends two rocks careening at her from opposite directions. She dips to avoid one and throws her arms up to break through the other. Her chest heaves as she skids forward and swings her right leg around to rip a chunk of earth out in a move more akin to a fire kick. It misses Bumi by a whole foot. "I take it back. My grandma could bend you into the ground with _only_ her pinky! You're gonna let an old dog like me toss you around?"

(He's not an old dog. He's barely thirty and in his prime. She tells him so and he tells her to stop making excuses for herself)

Kei lets out a breathless chuckle. There's some undergrowth near the clearing he deemed suitable for sparring and she reaches for it, twisting it out to wrap around one of his legs while she rushes forward and lets loose an airblast. It hits him squarely in the chest and Bumi flies back and disappears in the bushes only to arise grinning, a rouge twig sticking from that unruly hair.

While Bumi claims her when they're on dry ground, Mela and Himiko dominate her training when they set sail. Her airbending has improved by leaps and bounds, almost on par with earth and fire, though she doubts it'll ever reach her waterbending.

It amazes her how quickly she's regained her native element. She and Himiko often freeze pieces of the water they sail next to and spar on it, moving through phase changes and water whips. Sometimes they fight underneath the surface of the water, using the resistance to help build her strength again. Though there are no plants to bend out on the open ocean (aside from the stray clump of seaweed), she finds that her own unique style hasn't suffered much when she uses it to beat Bumi up when earthbending is inadequate.

Manipulating vines and twisting and controlling them isn't the same as bending free-flowing water. The element is hidden away by layers of sap and sinew and, more importantly, it comes from a source that is alive. It'd been hard to learn but ultimately she prefers bending plants to anything else.

Maybe her swamp roots are what have led her to be the bender she is. Asserting her control over something with life isn't easy. Taking the perseverance it'd required to learn swampbending into her training with the other elements has been her saving grace. And now, it appears, it is guiding her to her newest goal.

Defeat Azulon. Save the world. Find some kind of peace, preferably of the inner kind.

_Easier said than done._

Bumi, now recovered, stomps down and a large boulder rises. Crushing it into smaller pieces, he sends them flying toward her at an impossible speed. Kei cocks a smirk, falls into her airbending footwork and dodges every blow.

**VII.**

When the bending prison is little more than a dot on the horizon, Takashi drops the boat's anchor and they make the final preparations.

Bumi straps supple armor to her chest and thighs that bares the symbol of the swamp tribe on her bicep. He'd had them made for her a couple weeks ago when they were still in Earth Kingdom territory. Her arms and legs are left bare for better mobility and Himiko helps style her hair so it stays out of the way during combat. She pulls it back per Kei's instructions in a fashion common among the swamp warriors. Rows of braids sear against the sides of her scalp and feed into a high tail that's held up with a braided piece of leather. Mela runs through the plan with her again while they prepare her armor and Kei listens intently despite having heard them at least a hundred times before.

When she's ready to go, bow and quiver strapped across her back with waterskins at her sides, she hesitates for one final preparation.

In her room, she digs out the jar of white paint she'd had Himiko fetch for her before they retrieved Ryuu. She dips two fingers in it and looks down into the small bowl of water she'd left unfinished from breakfast.

Kei drags the white paint across her cheeks and forehead and moves onto her body where skin is left bare, forming thick lines and shapes that draw attention to the scars that decorate her tan skin.

When she's finished, Kei inspects her handiwork. She'd meant to replicate the paint the warriors donned when they left for a hunt but somehow ended up with a pattern more like the ones they wore for the harvest festival. A stranger stares up at her. Kei tries to find traces of the girl eager to dance in the village center or squash purple berries beneath her feet. When that fails, she searches for the one who'd been eager to assume her role as Avatar, the one with a bright laugh and a soft smile.

She's gone, too.

The white paint sharpens her already jagged features until they're deadly enough to kill with a single look. Two pieces of jade reflect in her eyes, ready to slice down anything that might stand in her way. She imagines what she'd look like in the Avatar State–even more terrifying, most likely; an unforgiving force of nature with the might of hundreds of other Avatars behind her.

She understands why Kyoshi wore the paint, too.

Somehow, the fear and pain she'd felt before has melted away. She's a different girl, a different person, ready to wreak havoc on the world's evil. Nothing can touch her. Nothing can stop her.

On the top deck, she hugs her mentors, Mela, Bumi, and Himiko. Kei shares a firm handshake and a locked look of understanding with Takashi who, despite his initial reservations, has headed the strategy of her campaign against the Fire Nation.

"Stay safe, squirt. I'm not done kicking your behind," Bumi murmurs, brushing her cheek with his patchy facial hair.

Kei squeezes him back. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

With that, she steps closer to the ledge of the boat and lets out a long whistle with her thumb and pointer finger between her lips. It takes a moment, water rippling past water, before Ryuu lifts his giant head from below.

He levels it with her, stares her down with black eyes, before turning to the side. She shakes her shoulders out and makes a running leap to climb onto his back.

Ryuu's scales are wet and slimy beneath her thighs and dig into her hands as she crawls up to grip one of the spines on his back for stability.

Kei draws in a breath. _It's okay. You've practiced this. He's not going to hurt you. He's your spirit guide for crying out loud._ She clicks her tongue twice. _Click-clack._ Ryuu's body coils beneath her before he lets loose a screech and dives back below the water, barreling toward the ship just over the horizon.

She barely has time to react. With a sloppy twirl of her free arm, she bends an air bubble that allows her to breath and stay dry while Ryuu shoots through the water like a hawk slices through the air.

Ryuu's body bunches under her and stretches out as each powerful sway of his tail rockets him forward, a mix of sheer power and natural bending. Tui and La were the original waterbenders but sea serpents had to have been some of the first to learn from them. Ryuu hadn't ever really shown much control over water when he'd been with her as a child but their year apart has allowed him to develop in more than just size.

When they'd practiced riding earlier that week, Ryuu had shown her what he could do with water. And it was amazing—terrifying and highly destructive, but amazing nonetheless.

Ryuu swims close enough to the surface for her to momentarily poke her head out and see how close they are. The prison has grown from a speck to the size of her fist.

"Just a little further, boy," she says and they dive back under.

**VIII.**

How Jun Li drew the short stick and ended up guarding a ship full of earthbending savages was beyond him. He hadn't gone to the Royal Naval Academy and trained in evasion and siege techniques for _nearly five years_ just to be tossed into the middle of the damn ocean.

Half of the ship's population is outside in the yard, milling around like phantoms with no purpose. The other half wait in their cell for a glimpse of the red western sky. Jun Li watches them, makes sure none of them kill each other in a restless fight or try to dive over the side for an escape. Not that they'd get very far. Earthbenders aren't exactly known for their superb swimming abilities.

_Serves them right, defying the Fire Nation like that._

Jun Li grunts and stalks down the catwalk that runs above the yard. Back and forth and back. This is what five years of the world's best education got him—glorified babysitting and weeks without a woman's touch.

When he reaches the far left end, he leans over to spit a mouthful of tobacco into the ocean. It's a guilty pleasure his mother hates but he figures he's entitled to at least one vice out here and what his mother doesn't know won't kill her. The sticky clump makes a quick descent into the waves where something sharp flares before disappearing.

The guard turns, goes to make another lap, before it strikes him. His body tenses and switches from bored to alert but before he can yell, before he can even make a step, a monstrous beast bursts through the water near the hull of the ship. It roars and the metal beneath him quakes.

Screams echo through the yard like falling dominos. The guard stumbles back a few feet, clutches the railing behind his back. The Naval Academy doesn't prepare you for _this_.

A figure blasts off the back of the snake to an inhuman height with what looks like no effort. It takes a slow moment for Jun Li to recognize it for what it is. Airbending. And when the figure uses jets of fire to control their descent, he's five seconds from jumping overboard and swimming for shore.

The Naval Academy most definitely _does not_ prepare you to fight the Avatar. _How is she here?_ Last he heard, she'd been rotting in the Boiling Rock. 

From the catwalk, her white face paint glows and her expression is hard enough to bring empires to their knees. She's got her fists clenched at her sides and steam rises from her back like ghostly wings.

Prisoners who had scrambled to get away from her now stare with wonder. Guards flood the catwalk and the yard, hands poised for attack. The sea serpent snorts hot air through his nose and bares a row of deadly teeth when one man gets to close.

"You have two choices: Let the prisoners go free right now and I'll allow you to return safely to your homes," she calls out. "Or you can choose to stay and fight me, but I'll destroy you and the prisoners will still go free."

There's a collective inhale on the ship. Neither option truly seems like a good one. Face dishonor at home for abandoning their nation or die brutally at the hands of a vengeful Avatar.

It seems they all come to the same conclusion when the man closest to the Avatar steps forward with a fire fist that nearly singes the girl's eyebrows off.

A laugh, loud and cruel, echoes through the open air. The prisoners cower in any corner they can find. This girl certainly isn't the merciful Roku they'd all known all those years ago.

"Destruction it is then."

**IX.**

Kei disables the first guard by ducking under a high kick and grabbing his arm. She rips it behind his back, relishing in the loud _pop!_ of the joint dislocating. With a quick swing of her arm, she blasts the writhing body overboard and moves onto her next target. She doesn't have time to pause and wonder or even feel sorry for hurting the faceless man.

There's a mission to be completed, a balance to be achieved. Kyoshi's voice rips through her mind. _Use your pain and anger. Wear them proudly like battle scars._

She spins, gathering a rope of water from her flasks, and twists it around her body like she's using dancing ribbons. Bringing her right arm forward, she closes her fist and it quickly phases into ice. The spike impales two guards directly in front of each other and they fall in a heap of mutilated skin and bone.

The water returns to her, reddish in color, but she doesn't bother separating the blood from the mixture. It bends just the same as the water she pulls from plants, which is usually still thick with sap.

By the time she's taken down at least ten men, the guards realize that they have no chance of defeating her if they attack her singularly. They surround her in a circle with a wide circumference and take turns blasting her with bright orange fire.

Her training with Himiko and Mela kicks in and she dodges and redirects, turns their bending against them instead of wasting her chi. Bodies fall around her, crumpling in burnt and broken piles.

A guard at her side manages to land a blow on her arm that sears and eats at her flesh. The pain is blinding but Kei pushes it down and takes him out with a tentacle from her octopus form.

Ryuu's loud roar sings in time with the beating of her heart. It's the vicious thrum of war drums and Kei uses it to keep herself one maneuver ahead of her enemies. He spits water down at the guards who dare attack him or get too close to laying a hit on his master. Sea water gathers around Kei's ankles and she uses it to bend a cocoon of ice around her. It's a momentary reprieve for her to catch her breath, which are heavy white clouds inside her polar cage.

She's definitely stronger, more confident in her abilities than she's been in a long time, but she's fighting at a break-neck speed and the blistering burn on her arm is proof she can't keep it up alone for long. She needs help. She needs to get the prisoners earth to fight with.

Water drips from the top as the firebenders melt away the shell. Kei braces herself against the ice and closes her eyes.

A fat droplet of water falls on her forehead as she searches inwardly at a frantic pace. _Come on come on come on—_

Her body jerks as something _other_ rushes in to take control of her limbs. She feels her consciousness retreat to the corner of her mind and she suddenly feels so far away and very small.

The water melts away with a single tug of her arms— _are they hers? They don't look like it. They're longer and covered in green silk she doesn't ever remember wearing—_ and the men stumble away when she lets it drop to the ground.

 _"Avatar Kyoshi!"_ a prisoner shouts, pointing at the painted woman whose eyes glow like a dying star. If they'd been amazed at meeting Kei, then seeing the legendary Earth Avatar was ethereal.

Kei— _or is she Kyoshi or both?—_ doesn't warrant it with a response. With the bronze metal fans in her hands, she knocks back the ring of soldiers with an air blast that roars in their ears. Her red mouth is set hard as she stomps and unfurls her crossed arms, reaching deep down to the ocean floor, searching and seizing.

Two large monoliths jerk out of the sea on each side of the prison boat, which rocks as the waves crash all around them. With the pillars risen, she rips two large chunks toward her and splits them in half. Four equal pieces of stone rotate around her body and with a final burst of strength from the Avatar State, she slams them into the groups of soldiers surrounding her. The light fades and her body jerks one more time as something _other_ leaves her body.

Kei gasps, weak and shaky all over as the possession ends and her own mind regains control. She falls to her knees, her arms barely supporting her as she struggles to reorient herself.

"Now! Attack her _now!_ "

She can feel the heat of their flame drawing closer as they unleash an inferno on her, but she can't get herself to move.

_Get up, Kei. You need to get up—_

She raises her head, sees the fireball racing toward her, and lifts an arm to try and redirect it.

It never reaches her.

The blast curves around a wall of stone angrily before fizzling out. Kei looks to the side.

Two men and a woman about Bumi's age stand in position, their stance wide with their fists closed.

The woman nods at her and Kei manages a feeble, grateful smile. Someone drags her to her feet by her underarms and lightly slaps the sides of her face. This one is a young boy, even younger than her. His brow is set with determination and his mouth moves. Kei blinks twice.

"Sorry, say that again?" she asks as the ringing in her ears finally fades and Ryuu's screech rushes in.

"What do you need us to do, Avatar?"

Kei shakes her head to rid the last of the dizziness and exhales through her mouth. "Fight back. Win your freedom. I'm going after the warden."

With their element within reach, it shouldn't be hard for so many earthbenders to overthrow the rest of the ship. Kei has already taken out the majority and she's provided them the ability to take their lives back.

She moves to enter the belly of the ship but a firm grip on her arm stops her. It's the boy. "Thank you," he says.

"You don't have to thank me. Help your people and set those still in their cells free. I'll take care of the rest."

**X.**

"Tell me–what's so important that you deemed it necessary to interrupt my time with my sons?"

"We received a messenger hawk from the northwest bending prison."

"And?"

The messenger hands the Fire Lord a red carrier. He pops the lid off, shaking the scroll out. A small coin falls into his palm as the paper slips out. He flips the coin over in his hand. It's bronze in color with a square carved out of the center. _An Earth Kingdom yuan._

Frowning, he quickly opens the scroll.

_Your move._

**XI.**

Kei conquers the water prison effortlessly.

When she emerges from its walls, the arm of an old man slung over her shoulders, she's bathed red with the blood of her enemies. Her white paint smears across her skin and she's burned and covered with bruises. Her body is injured but her soul is alive, surging and pulsing with power.

_I'm the Avatar. And I will save these people._

**XII.**

Another hawk from another bending prison. Another coin. This one is blue with the symbol of the Water Tribe carved on its face. There is no note. The message is clear.

Azulon incinerates the wooden piece in his fist. "Bring me my generals," he snarls. "The Earth Kingdom falls _now_."

**XIII.**

Soldiers arrive in the colonies and swarm the land like wildfire. They burn and destroy and spread. They merge with other platoons and everything they come into contact falls.

Takashi receives a messenger hawk from a White Lotus contact in Gaoling who tells him of the plague. When he shows the Avatar, she leaves the training grounds where the earthbenders and waterbenders are preparing and retreats to her tent. Her advisors are there. Himiko in her blue wraps, waterskins at her sides. Bumi in green plates, feet bare. Mela in— _finally—_ robes of orange and yellow with one third of her head shaved. And Takashi in red armor with his katana at his side.

"The next full moon is in two weeks. It's just enough time to travel to the Fire Nation and attack," Mela says.

Kei slumps into a chair. She drags a hand over her face and the white paint on her face chips. (She's begun wearing it almost every day now. It's a good symbol for her warriors and it keeps the monster in her at bay.)

"It's all happening so fast… I knew it would come to this, but I still don't feel ready."

Himiko crouches in front of the girl, tucks a piece of hair that's fallen out of her tail behind her ear. She can't talk but her touch speaks for her.

"You won't be alone," Bumi says. "We'll be with you every step of the way."

Kei shakes her head. "You can't be. I have to face Azulon alone and I only trust the four of you to get the airbenders to safety. I'll do it alone. But I'll win. I have to."

Takashi steps forward. Despite their rocky beginning, he's become invaluable to her. His military training in the Fire Nation provided them much needed insight and strategy in liberating the prisons. And he'd been a constant beacon of support for her. He'd spent countless late nights planning with her, bringing her food when she forgot to eat and forcing her to bed when she'd gone too many hours without rest.

"We need to leave by the end of tomorrow if we're to make it there in time to harness the moon's power. The Earth King's shipment of armor and weapons arrived earlier today. I can dole out the resources today and finish going over attack plans with the soldiers."

Bumi clears his throat. "I'll go with you. You'll need an extra hand with them. Mela and Kei can go over her airbending and Himiko can work on getting camp closed up with the benders who aren't with us."

Kei nods absently. In two weeks, she'd be face-to-face with Azulon. The man who'd ordered the genocide of the swamp tribe. Who'd begun hazing the western half of the Earth Kingdom because she'd angered him. She had no idea what he looked like or how old he was or if he had a tell in combat. She didn't even know where he'd be once they landed in the capital. She was walking in blind, but what else was there to do? People were dying and she was the only one who could stop it.

"Don't worry, Kei," Mela says. "We'll get through this."

**XIV.**

Kei's sick—sick to her stomach, sick in the mind, so sick that she can hardly stand to leave her cabin during the voyage. She's killed before, did plenty of it in the swamp and bending prisons, but this feels different.

This life means something _more_. Taking this life means the end of the war. People can go home to their families and they can live their life unafraid. She's been tirelessly working toward peace for so long that she can't see what her life will become after it. So much hangs on her ability to kill one man.

Once Azulon is five feet below ground, what will that leave her with? All her advisors have duties they need to return to. Bumi is heir to Omashu's throne, Himiko plans on looking for waterbenders who'd been displaced by the war and bringing them home, Mela has an entire race of people that need her, and she knows Takashi wants nothing more than to return to the White Lotus.

Kei has nothing. No home or family to return to. No lover to welcome her home from the war. There is only her and a water serpent and he can't shake her from her nightmares.

She's all alone. There's no one to take care of her anymore.

Kei bends her head over an empty tin bucket and empties what little breakfast she'd choked down that morning.

**XV.**

When they enter the waters surrounding the capital island, Avatar Kei paints her face white and climbs upon Ryuu's spiked back. The paint chases away her sickness but she's left feeling hollow on the inside. Her army, loaded upon a small group of boats stolen from one of the outer Fire Nation islands responsible for shipping supplies, murmurs as the water serpent rears his head with a cry and dives under the waves.

Not too long after, they sail past a mass of destruction. Pieces of metal float on the water's surface, supplies and red cloth bobbing among the wreckage.

There are other boats, other sunken masses of iron and steel. Each has been blasted to bits by water, warped by a cold fury.

It seems that not even the mighty Fire Navy can withstand the wrath of a single girl and her water serpent.

**XVI.**

An army marches through the harbor, up the hill toward the gates that guard the capital. Waves still surge over the docks from the water serpent's attack. In the distance, the soldier can hear his harsh cry and the chaos of boats sinking in the bay.

He's one of the many earthbenders the Avatar liberated from the metal ships and he's here, at her request, to lay waste to the capital.

His heart pounds in his chest. Not even the earth below soothes him. It should, considering he went so long without it, but all he can think about is the firebenders past the volcano's walls and the way skin stinks when it burns. That, and his mother's face. She was ill when he was taken almost two years ago. _Is she still alive?_

The earthbender scratches at his arm, rubbing at an old burn from his first week on the iron boat, and swallows his emotions until they fill his stomach and ease the churning.

Civilians who live outside the gates are long gone. Avatar Kei allowed them to leave when the army first landed and if he looks behind him now, he'll see tiny boats littering the water. How the Avatar manages to avoid them while blowing the remaining warships to smithereens, the soldier isn't sure. But she does because she's the Avatar and he feels slightly better. He doesn't want to kill innocents. He doesn't want to kill anyone but if it means his little cousin isn't taken to an iron ship far, far away from any earth, he will.

A mass of fire races above him and the soldier tenses, reaching for the earth, before realizing it's just her—the Avatar. He looks over his shoulder. Her guide is still sweeping through the bay, keeping a careful eye on the horizon to destroy any reinforcements that may be on their way. Avatar Kei lands at the front of the marching line, just before the gates. Knees bent, flames spread from the ground she lands on before curling back into themselves. She looks like a phoenix, risen from the ashes of the Foggy Swamp.

The Avatar brings her hands behind her ramrod-straight back as she scans the troops. Even from here, he can see the sharp glint of her green eyes. He's never seen a native waterbender with eyes like that, but he recognizes the wrath of the moon and ocean all the same.

Sweat drips down the back of his neck and next to him one of his comrades breathes heavily through his nose.

"Today, we claim the Fire Nation capital," she begins. Like the first time he heard her voice, the soldier is awed by its age. The Avatar can't be any older than eighteen and yet she speaks with the depth and power of something aeons older. "I know coming here was a sacrifice that many of you were hesitant to make. You would have rather returned to your families immediately. Believe me, I understand. But each and everyone of you knew that it would be temporary. As long as Fire Lord Azulon sits on the throne, no one is safe. I will destroy Azulon and with him his reign of terror will end. We can bring balance back to the world but it will take everything we have."

The company roars and the ground rumbles and the ocean crashes against the rocks. He can feel the anger, its righteousness and justice. It grows around him, grows _in_ him, as the Avatar leaves them with one last speech. Her words are simple and while she looks like the rest of them, the soldier swears he can feel the glow in her words. Her voice fills with the depth of all her past lives.

 _"Leave the innocents and the soldiers who surrender,"_ she yells and her face twists and her eyes harden. The soldier shudders at the thought of being on the other end of her gaze. _"Spare no mercy for the rest!"_

**XVII.**

Kei stands before the capital's walls. A metal gate bars her from the city. Atop the walls in the sentry posts, she can see soldiers. If she closes her eyes and seeks out their energy, she knows she'll find fear.

She's created a lot of that lately.

Her army stands alert behind her. Waterbenders and earthbenders blend together in one company. Most hadn't had any formal training until she liberated them from their prisons and asked them to train for the invasion. She should be concerned with their abilities since the Fire Nation's soldiers have been training for combat since they bent their first flame, but she isn't. Her army is fighting for something Azulon could never understand.

_Family, freedom, and a world without fear._

"You can open the gates and surrender now," she calls out, "or we can force them open and do this the hard way."

Silence rings.

Kei watches as something slick and black oozes down the walls. _Oil_ , she realizes.

She's barely brought her arms up and began to rip the earth up when the wall bursts into flames and reaches for her. The heat warms her cheeks as she holds the wall up, stretching the length of the road, and shields her regiment.

When the heat is gone, she uncrosses her arms and pushes the earth back into the ground. Her teeth grind and the ugly monster in her cries for retribution.

Breathing deeply through her nose, she reaches for the source of her own energy and blasts from the ground, fire leaving her feet and palms. She's too quick for the firebending soldiers and easily makes it to the other side of the wall.

An entire squadron awaits her and she faults when she lands. In the front of the group, a boy has his hands raised, one palm open with the other fisted; he looks so much like Jiro and impossibly young, his helmet slightly slipping on his forehead.

_This is what Azulon has resorted to?_

She's so angry she could melt through the iron gate with her breath of fire alone. He has _children_ on the front lines. (She's a child, too, but she's the Avatar and that, she supposes, is where the difference lies.)

The boy who looks like Jiro brings his closed fist forward, a fire blast following, and Kei blocks it with her forearm before she swings her leg around and blasts him into a group of soldiers with a gust of air.

There are more children than she can count, some barely old enough to understand why they're fighting. She tries to avoid harming them, her heart still soft, and uses the water from her dual flasks to whip them unconscious. Her gut tells her the older men, the ones who knew the world before the comet, are closer to the palace.

When she's incapacitated the child soldiers, she inspects the door and finds it's been melted shut.

Kei curses and grumbles under her breath but widens her stance. She cracks her knuckles and squares her knees and arms, searches for the earth beneath the metal wall. It whispers to her and she seizes it with an unbendable grip before ripping her arms away, running as the ground tears and crumbles under her control. Sweat creeps down her temples and her arms burn. With a final grunt, she digs her heels in and pulls.

**XVIII.**

Azulon feels the wall crumble. He doesn't have to be an earthbender to know that. _Her troops are flooding the city by the second._

He knows he can't defeat an angry mob of benders—not without a comet, not with so few soldiers.

But that's never been the plan. He's always been able to see the bigger picture and make the necessary sacrifices. This battle is no different.

**XIX.**

Once Kei knows her army has entered the city, she leaves them to work. They know their jobs. Now she has to do hers.

She blasts from the ground again, flying high above the city. Her heart races and she can feel the power thrumming through her body but there's still that hole. It's grown in the last few months, grown so big she's not sure how much of herself is left. A creature of darkness and retribution has filled its spot and she feels its presence in moments like this. Kei doesn't think she even recognizes herself. Would her Ma and Pa?

It doesn't matter.

Along the way, Kei lands on a terraced rooftop to regain her breath before launching back into the air. The city below her is in chaos. Houses are burning and she can see mothers running with their children. Water meets fire meets earth and the anger and brightness she felt at the swamp returns. It spreads in her vision but she fights and pushes it back. _I need to do this on my own._

The palace appears and in front she can see that this is where the majority of the guards have been placed. When they see her, the onslaught of fire begins. This time she doesn't hold back. These are grown men, men old enough to be her father or grandfather.

Kei rolls when she lands and slams a closed fist into the ground. The earth around her ripples and collapses under the men. Dipping to dodge a fire blast, she pulls water from her flasks and wraps it around one soldier's ankle, using it as if it were a vine to throw him into a nearby wall. His body makes a sickening thud and Kei watches as blood pools around his head.

A man yells behind her, all fury and fire. Kei snarls, her gut twisting, and takes control of a fire whip before she redirects it back in a move that's half-firebending, half-waterbending. She adds a little extra power to the blow and it hits the man in the chest before he can dodge and begins to eat at his skin.

The smell of burning flesh pulls her back to the swamp and grief, true grief stronger than the moon and ocean and sun combined, rips through her, clawing at her throat and burning her eyes.

The glow returns. She pushes it away more violently this time. _No,_ she growls the thought. _Not yet._

Tall ruby doors lead her into a massive courtyard. It's empty—all of the guards who'd previously manned it now lay injured or dead on the front steps after leaving their posts to confront Kei when she landed—and her footsteps echo like thunder. She's a storm, unstoppable and frightening and enchanting all the same.

She's never been to the palace but her feet instinctually lead her where she wants to go. Even without the glow, Roku's memories guide her. He knows where Azulon is hiding and Kei feels his anger pushing at a wall in her mind. If it breaks, she'll lose control and the Avatar State will take control. And she can't have that. She needs to do this alone. She needs Azulon to look her in the eyes—her eyes, green like moss, not the glow of a hundred other benders—and realize that she, the stupid, naive girl from the swamp with nothing to her name, will be the one to end him.

Her palms burn when she places them on the doors. The metal is hot under her skin and she holds herself for a moment to relish in the sting before she pushes them wide open.

And there he is.

**XX.**

"I've been waiting for you, Avatar."

"I'm not here to talk."

"An Angi Kai then? Very well. I've never fought an Avatar before. Let's see if I can ruin you as quickly as the rest."

**XXI.**

The sound of his red robe fluttering is the only warning she gets before his hands are pressed together and arcing down to slice her with a blinding stream of fire.

Kei dips, presses through the flames, and rotates her hips to release a gust of air that slams Azulon back into his throne.

The man, hair black like soot and eyes burning like two twin comets, laughs. It's slow, raspy, crackles and breaks like the snap of fireworks. His smile reminds her of the smirk Sozin presented her with when he visited her at the Boiling Rock. _He thinks he's already won._

"Tell me, Avatar… Have you ever faced a true prodigy? You can't stop me. _I've never been beaten._ "

Actions speak louder than words so, wordlessly, she draws the water from her flasks and allows it to swallow her arms; she forms two water whips with the ends frozen into lethal scythes that gleam in the darkness of the throne room.

_I don't care if you're a prodigy. I don't care if you're the Fire Lord. I will cut you down like the animal you are._

Azulon stands, sheds that red robe to reveal obsidian armor, and raises his fists. Fire howls forward, blasting her with its heat and pushing her back a step. She turns her face and blocks it with ice, swinging a blade where she thinks his feet might be behind the blockade.

The Fire Lord springs into the air, bursting past his attack. One heel arcs down, bringing destruction where it follows. Kei reaches for the earth beneath the cool marble floor and rips a wall to the surface. It shields her from the fire and she shoves it forward. She feels it slam into the throne, bending the gold and brass, but Azulon has vanished into thin air.

Then before she can turn, he's off to her side, launching a volley of quick kicks and fire fists that force her to retreat behind a pillar of volcanic rock. The heat brings sweat to her forehead and upper lip and swelters on her skin until it stings.

Fear rips a place in her soul and patters in her heart as that firework laugh pitches through the room. Her chest feels so tight and her hands shake, adrenaline and terror mixed, as she tries to draw the water she's dropped back to her.

_He's too fast. He's avoiding every attack I throw his way. Brute strength isn't enough against him. I need to move differently. I need to move like Aang._

Kei rolls to the next pillar and brings a closed fist to the marble. Earth ripples forward until it stops at Azulon's foot. The firebender stumbles a step, his stance broken, but it's all she needs.

Water wrapped back around her arms, she loops one whip around his ankle and grabs his wrist with the other. Then she swings him into the air and slams him into the ground with a war cry. While he's still down, struggling to his feet, she gathers fire in her palms and rushes forward to blast him through the throne room doors.

Azulon spins to avoid the attack, gathers her fizzling fire from the air, and brings it around his back before sending it back to air.

Sliding into an airbending _kata_ , Kei spins with her hands raising before her. There are several more attacks, each searing the surface of her flesh, but none of them direct hits. She inches closer with each spin and leap.

When she's a few feet away, she brings her arms back and sucks in a deep breath that fuels her fire. Azulon hits the doors with a sickening thud and tumbles through the gate into the open hallway.

He pushes himself up on his elbows and his white dragon teeth flash in the moonlight as he grins. A thin trail of blood trickles down the side of his face toward his ear.

She feels it burst through the damn before she can stop it, chasing away the monster she's become and replacing it with an entirely different beast. Briefly, she sees her reflection in a stray piece of glass.

White eyes framed by white pain, hands glowing with blistering starfire.

 _"Azulon, you and your father have upset the balance of the world and you will now face the consequences."_ Her voice swells and grows as Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku and a hundred others echo through her.

Azulon laughs giddily and turns heel. He leaps over the half-wall separating the hall from the gardens and launches himself into the air with blue fire streaming from his hands and feet.

**XXII.**

The world is exploding above him. This he is sure of. He can't see it from the deep darkness of his cell below the earth but he can feel it in the trembling walls and in the electric air.

Airbenders in the cells around him cry out when an explosion rattles their world. Earth meets metal as a nearby chunk of wall is forcibly pushed out.

In the dim light, he can see two figures climbing out of the hole. One is obviously an earthbender, responsible for the tunnel leading to their cells, and he thinks he sees a flash of blue on the other's forehead— _an airbender._

The others must see what he does because they begin to weep and cry out. It's a cacophony of joy and relief that echoes around him and swallows him whole. Someone has come to save them. That's what the exploding world above means.

If he's right—and he usually is—someone with whom he's intimately familiar is bringing the Fire Nation capital to its knees. _Did she come for me? Does she know I'm here?_

"Alrighty, let's get you guys out of here," the earthbender says, cracking his knuckles and sinking into his knees. "Stand back. It'll be messy."

The man uses his bending to pry apart their cells and one by one the cavern fills with airbenders who haven't felt the sun or wind in decades.

When the earthbender comes to his cell, one dark eyebrow arches. He makes no move to free him from his cell. No doubt it's the inky color of his hair and the amber shade of his eyes. There's no mistaking his heritage and he doesn't blame the other man for his hesitancy.

"Well, what do we have here—were you too slimy for even your countrymen?"

"Bumi, wait," the airbender who'd accompanied him says, placing a hand on his shoulder. _He knows her. He knows the airbender and that means that_ she _is here._

She looks at him, looks past the thick beard on his face and the sallow color of his skin, looks into his soul with all-knowing eyes.

"Jiro?"

**XXIII.**

The wind whips past her and rips the ends of her hair across her face. Just in front of her, she can see the trail of Azulon's blue fire as he weaves through a starry night sky.

His laughter—maniacal between short intakes of breath—rips through the sky like the prequel to a never-ending storm.

Kei uses a mixture of air and fire to keep herself airborne. She bends the water out of the clouds they pass through, thrusting long streams of it out with heavy punches.

The Avatar State has provided her with a limitless well of strength and energy that thrums and hums through her veins like opium. She's high on power and unstoppable as she pursues the Fire Lord. She's not at all in control of herself but who cares when the spirits of hundreds of Avatars are the ones puppeteering her assault?

She has one goal and one goal only: Kill Azulon. Restore peace.

The means with which she achieves this are inconsequential.

Finally, one of her waterwhips hits home. It sinks icy teeth around his leg and Azulon's laughter breaks for a moment as he groans in pain.

The fire and air holding her up dies and she can feel herself falling, falling, _falling_. Azulon is following, forced to plummet even with the inferno of cold fire still blasting from his hands and feet.

Her feet hit the roof of a bell tower first, and she slides on the terracing before she jumps. Kei braces her knees and the earth bends to meet her as she rips Azulon out of the sky and slams him into a wall.

There are people all around her, screaming and running as the ground buckles and caves under Kei. The Fire Lord rises, bloody and bruised, but relatively unharmed in areas it counts the most.

Kei reaches for every drop of water in the city. Every pot, pan, bathtub and pitcher. It rushes and worms toward her and her fingers twitch in anticipation. And while the water swarms, Azulon assumes a new stance.

With two fingers pointed, he pulls them in and out and around his body. Something crackles in the air, bursts into existence. Another moment later, Kei is diving to avoid an unforgiving fork of lightning.

The light behind her eyes fades and suddenly she's just a girl. Her breaths begin to tear through her chest and her limbs ache but there's still another force driving her to fight past the exhaustion and it's not the Avatar State. It's the monster whose teeth ache to sink into Azulon's flesh and rip him limb from limb.

"It's called the _cold-blooded fire_. Have you ever faced it, Avatar Kei?" he snarls, face twisted devilishly as his eyes flare. Kei eyes his hands as they dance to pull another bolt into existence. When she doesn't answer, Azulon leers. "I thought not."

**XXIV.**

"She thinks you're dead," Bumi says casually as they crawl back up the hole he'd burrowed into the underground caverns. "I gotta tell you, she'll be over the moon that you're not… well, _dead_."

Jiro grunts and helps the woman he's holding up over a jagged piece of earth. "I hope you're right."

The lip of Bumi's tunnel flashes red and blue before they're plunged into black. Jiro peaks his head out of the tunnel, deems it safe from whatever the light had come from, and pulls the woman out into the open world.

Red and blue flash again, this time somewhere above him, and Jiro inhales a sharp breath when he looks up.

It's _her_. She's flying, weaving through the sky like she's a koi fish in water, as Azulon summons a storm of electricity. Water follows her wherever she flies, freezing and unfreezing at her will to suit whatever need she claims.

The earth rumbles, too, and the top of a building launches into the air as she rips it up and tosses it toward the Fire Lord like she's playing with a ragdoll.

This is definitely not the girl he left behind at the Boiling Rock.

Bumi stands next to him and he whistles with two fingers wedges between his teeth. "Now _that's_ my girl! Kick his ass, squirt!"

Mela, the airbender, scowls at him. "Bumi, she can't hear you."

"Doesn't hurt to speak it into existence," he says and shrugs.

Jiro's heart hammers in his chest. He's afraid for her, though he probably doesn't need to be. Not when she's so effortlessly assumed the role of warrior and conquer in a few months time.

Something darts above the rooftops, calling his attention like a siren's song. Whatever it is, at least thirty of them rush above him toward a singular destination; they're lithe and fast and their faces are hidden in shadow with the only distinguishable shape being the bow on their back….

_The Yuyan Archers._

Whatever reassurances he'd fed himself before vanish. If the Yuyan are here, they're here by Azulon's order and there's only one person important enough to warrant their deployment.

"Mela," he says in a tight voice. "I need you to follow me."

"What? Why? I have to get my people to safety."

"Kei's life is in danger. I need an airbender."

Mela follows his gaze to the shadows darting through the city's upper level. She stiffens, like she's seen a ghost, and her jaw ticks.

"We need to hurry," she says, already moving. "Where do you think they're headed?"

Jiro looks at the path Azulon's lightning makes across the sky. Up close, in the heat of the battle, he's sure it looks spontaneous. But it's no coincidence that the archers are swarming in the same direction.

"We need to get to the coronation courtyard."

**XXV.**

With a burst of power that is entirely her own, Kei wraps her arms around Azulon's stomach and a yell rips from her throat as she blasts them into the courtyard. They tumble, roll, and fall, collecting bruises and scrapes. Pieces of her leather gear rip and leave parts of her stomach and back bare.

Kei pushes herself up, shoulders heaving as she struggles to regain her breath. Stray pieces of hair fall in her eyes and her lips curls as her face pulls into a snarl. Every nerve in her is alive and the creature has only grown with every blow landed on the Fire Lord.

_I am unyielding and unbreakable like the First Tree. My blood is water, my breath is air, my bones are earth, and my soul is fire. I am the Avatar and in this I cannot fail._

Azulon lays on his back. His firework laugh burns her ears, bubbling with a wet cough, and her sight blurs with blinding light that she holds back by a frayed thread. "You've been quite the fun, Avatar. Your soldier boy was far less entertaining."

White noise fills her ears. She feels herself leave her body as the other returns before snapping back into place. Her rage—the creature, this monster—won't let her go. It needs no one, wants no connection to her past lives.

Azulon sits on ruined court tiles with his elbows on his knees, unperturbed by the seething young Avatar in front of him. There are silver chinks in his armor where she's beaten it away and the topknot on his head has slipped halfway off.

"Oh, yes," says Azulon, an icy flame flickering in his hand. It darkens his face until he's all lines and shadows, highlights of blue fire brushed here and there, a truly sinister sight to see. "They brought the boy to me after you escaped the Boiling Rock. He never put up as much of a fight as I'd hoped he would but it was entertaining enough to watch him burn. You aren't very good at saving those you claim to love, are you?"

Fire propels her forward until she's face to face with the Fire Lord.

" _What did you do to Jiro_?" she hisses, looming over him as the cracks in her soul spider and snap.

Azulon stands. This close to each other, she can see that he towers over her by a full head. In his comet eyes, pieces of amber and gold flicker hotly.

"I danced over his blackened bones, Avatar. Then I fucked an airbender whore and taught my sons the easiest points to slip a knife between a man's ribs."

A roar builds in her and she releases it with two heavy fists of air. Her palms hit Azulon's chest and he reels backward, high in the air. He corrects himself with fire blasts and when he lands, laughter echoing around him, he begins to dip into that dance of yin and yang, pushing and pulling the _jin_ around him.

Kei raises a slab of earth as the lightning strikes. It explodes under her hands, sends her back several feet as the skin on her palms bubbles with burns. Azulon approaches her as cool and unpredictable as the cold blooded fire he wields.

She is not calm. She's slipping, grasping at the straws of something. She's being consumed, falling farther and deeper into a great and terrible fury that leaves her world in shades of gray. Her chest is so tight and her eyes sting with smoke and tears and she feels like bursting out of her skin.

_I'm all alone. There's no one here to save me. There's no one here to stop me._

"And now that I have you _right where I want you,_ I will end you and what remains of your savage tribe. You can't stop me, Avatar. I cannot be beaten."

Two fingers point at her, sparking and smoking as the electricity rushes to the surface.

Her vision flashes, drowns the world in light, and then she's moving in a way she's never moved before. It's all sharp little jerks and stiff muscles and finger twitches like she's playing a broken lute by a campfire in late summer.

Kei's hands are extended before her, hands vertical to the ground and fingers loosely spread. Something pulses underneath her, sings to her as it rushes through a million little highways and the high of the Avatar State melts with something that burns even brighter.

A second heartbeat pounds in her chest.

Azulon kneels in front of her and remains there while she is pulled to her feet by a gust of wind that swirls around her in a tornado. His arms are still extended in a lethal strike of lightning that never came but his face has twisted into something else.

The smile— _he thinks he's already won—_ is gone and has been replaced with pain, horror, and complete surprise. His body is tight like a string pulled taught.

Kei curls her fist, seeks out the strongest note in an symphony of millions. His body moves under her like she's a puppeteer just learning her craft. The monster purrs and gulps down mouthfuls of the lazy, all-consuming power she's just discovered. But she can't blame it all on the monster under her skin. The girl from the swamp enjoys it just as much. 

The Fire Lord gasps, gurgles as blood crawls up his throat and stains his dragon teeth red. "What— _what are you doing to me_?"

Something crawls over her mouth. Not a smile, not a smirk, not quite a grimace either. Kei looks like a glass doll whose ivory face was shattered and glued back together—except now there are small gaps and holes and spiderweb cracks where there should be blushing cheeks. She's been placed together again, but none of the pieces fit where they should.

Kei finds the note she's looking for. It's a steady thrum— _thud thud, thud thud—_ that supports the rest of its song.

The courtyard is a galestorm of isolated wind and water and fire and earth. She takes one step closer to the Fire Lord, relishes that fearful gleam in his eyes, before she closes her fist entirely and clenches it until her knuckles are white and pink and satisfaction in the shade of crimson spills through her.

The Fire Lord falls. He does not rise.

The Avatar discovers that bloodbending isn't so different from swampbending.

Someone calls her name and her head whips to the source. _Impossible you're gone you're dead he danced on your bones—_

The light crowding her vision fades just enough for her to see the color of his eyes. Not two comets like Azulon's but the bronze shade of a sun sinking into the ocean.

He's running and he looks so terrified. _Of me?_ she wonders. _Did he see what I did to him?_

Her gut twists. Everyone is scared of her. No one loves her. _I am alone._ She begins to form his name on her mouth.

When the arrow pierces her heart, slipped between two ribs exposed through torn leather, Kei collapses and draws her last breath before she hits the ground.

The Fire Lord falls that night. But, then again, so does the Avatar.

The Yuyan do not miss.

**XXVI.**

Somewhere in the Earth Kingdom, a baby cries.

A shadowy figure hushes the child, popping the tip of their smallest finger in its mouth. They slink through the city's streets, sticking close to walls and dark corners where the midnight watch won't think to look. It's fairly easy to do. Xianghao is far enough from the coast that the war hasn't quite reached them yet. The only sign that the Fire Nation declared war are the homeless children and the packed halfway homes. People, for the most part, are still relaxed here. They're not afraid of the night and the terrors it brings.

(The figure knows that soon everyone will be afraid of the night. The Fire Lord is dead but so is the Avatar. There is no one left to protect them.)

Their destination is in sight. _Mama Lu's Orphanage for Lost Children_. It's a two-story building made up of crudely-bent earth and warped wood. It's not the type of place any parent would want to see their child but it's the closest orphanage with any openings. (It's a terrible place to send your child but at least they knew their baby would have a roof to live under. Orphanages that were full were simply tossing children—no matter the age—back out onto the street. That had to count for something, right?)

Crawling up Mama Lu's front steps, they place the baby down. It's still crying, nose red from the effort and the chilling autumn wind. The guardian makes a clicking sound with their tongue, fidgets with the blanket, and makes sure the note is pinned tightly to the cloth. Then they knock, three sharp staccato notes that echo through the structure, and run.

They hide behind a corner of a nearby building, hidden by shadows, and wait for the door to be opened. An elderly woman with her white hair emerges wrapped in a thin black wrap. She frowns, looks around for a second, before the baby's cries force her gaze down.

The old woman grumbles and picks up the small, wrinkled thing whose face is scrunched up in a wail. Paper crackles under her fingers and the woman twists it toward her so she can get a better look.

_My name is Jinhai and I need a home._

Mama Lu snorts, rocking the child back and forth as they search the dark street for whoever might have left it there. They're long gone by now, crawling back into whichever hole they crawled out of. "You and a thousand other babies, Jinhai. You and a thousand others."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that concludes part one of this series. i always knew i wanted kei to die fighting the fire lord, but i bounced around a lot between whether it should be sozin or azulon and how exactly she should go. my original idea was for her to enter the avatar state and essentially bring the dormant volcano the capital sits on back to life and effectively kill both of them as a tribute to roku and sozin, but that complicated the matter of how everyone else was going to survive. so instead i drew this parallel between kei and hama, who both were forced to discover bloodbending as a means of survival after a prolonged period of imprisonment where they were tortured and abused.
> 
> my headcanon that azulon bends blue fire stems from the fact this—if you're going to name one of your children after the reigning fire lord, shouldn't it be your first-born son? it's my personal belief that azula was named after her grandfather for more than just a sign of respect and stemmed from her ability to wield blue fire, just like her namesake.
> 
> also, just a fun fact in case any of you lovely readers were interested, my favorite scene (to write and read-over tbh) was when kei liberated the earthbending prison. i love Kyoshi and i just… i had to do it y'all. if roku can possess aang, then kyoshi can possess kei. because on top of my love for her, i really feel like kyoshi and kei have similar personalities and experiences and had kei been given the chance to grow and get over her trauma, they would have followed similar paths as the avatar.
> 
> if you liked kei's character, don't worry. this isn't the last you'll see of her. she'll have plenty of cameos in the upcoming installment about our friendly neighborhood earth avatar. and as far as the fire nation goes… don't worry. this also isn't the last you'll see of them.


End file.
